Singapore has emerged as the leader in talent competitiveness in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region surpassing all the developed and developing nations in the region mainly because of its robust education sector, the 2019 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) revealed.
Globally, the city-state emerged as the second leading country in talent competitiveness with a GTCI score of 77.27, while Switzerland topped the list with a GTCI score of 81.82 retaining its title as the most talent competitive country in the world.
United States emerged as the third leading country in talent competitiveness with a GTCI score of 76.64, followed by Norway and Denmark with GTCI scores of 74.67 and 73.85 respectively.
Finland emerged as the sixth leading country in talent competitiveness with a GTCI score of 73.78, followed by Sweden, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Luxembourg with GTCI scores of 73.53, 73.02, 71.44, and 71.18 respectively.
Singapore is the only country in the Asia Pacific region to have come in the top 10 list of countries in global talent competitiveness, with New Zealand and Australia securing 11th and 12th spot respectively.
The 2019 GTCI report is published by INSEAD in collaboration with Tata Communications and Adecco Group. The report is a comprehensive annual benchmark study determining how cities and countries grow, and attract and retain talent. The GTCI looked at 68 variables in more than 125 countries across all groups of income and levels of development.
While the performance of the city state across rankings is more dissimilar, it scored high in three pillars, viz. attract, enable, and international knowledge skills, the report divulged. Singapore is also one of the most robust performers with regard to the pillar on technical and vocational skills in spite of its low rankings on workforce with secondary education and population with secondary education.
Singapore’s performance fell short in the pillar with respect to sustainability 23rd, retaining talent 26th, and lifestyle subcomponents 31st. The report highlighted on the fact how the dispersal of scores was the smallest in the attract pillar and the largest in the retain pillar, which suggested that the capability of countries to retain talent sets them apart from their abilities to attract talent.
BlaBlaCar Founder and CEO Frédéric Mazzella stated that the face of entrepreneurship has transformed dramatically in the past 10 years due to digitalisation as well as due to the change in the labour markets adding that various types of talents might be required as per a given ask even though entrepreneurial talent seems extremely relevant in the contemporary world more so from the viewpoint of companies that are starting or scaling up.
Frédéric also added that Switzerland, Singapore, Amsterdam, and Paris are the best examples to follow location-wise with regard to the stimulation and leverage of entrepreneurial talent.
The report also divulges that cities instead of countries are developing robust roles as talent centres and will be vital to redesigning the international talent scene. The increasing significance of cities is because of their greater ability and flexibility to adapt to new patterns and trends.
As per the report, the capital city of Brunei – Darussalam – emerged as the seventh best place in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region with the score of 49.91, which makes it 36th best place in the global rankings.