The IMD World Talent Ranking, which presents a ranking of countries on their ability to develop, attract and retain talent, first saw Malaysia drop from the 2014 ranking of 5 to 15 last year.
IMD’s World Talent report 2016 monitors the economies of 61 countries, ranking them from the most to the least competitive.
Switzerland and Denmark continue to hold first and second spots for the third year running. Behind them are Belgium, ranked third, Sweden (4) and the Netherlands (5).
Hong Kong is the highest ranked Asian economy in the IMD World Talent Ranking 2016, placed 9th, while Singapore are ranked 15. Hong Kong and Singapore were ranked 12th and 10th, respectively, last year.
The objective of the World Talent Report is to assess how countries around the globe sustain the necessary talent pool for businesses to maximise their performances.
The report took into account the three key factors of “investment and development in homegrown talent” (public investment in education and the quality of its education system); “appeal” (how well the country retains home-grown talent and attracts talent from overseas) and “readiness” (a country’s ability to fulfil market demands with its available talent pool).
The ranking was based on over 20 indicators, some statistical and others drawn from an IMD survey of thousands of international executives. The Competitiveness Centre’s database tracked the evolution since 2005.