Malaysia ranks 5th in IMD world talent rankings

24 Nov 2014

Malaysia has surged to the fifth spot over the past decade from 20th position, according to the latest world talent ranking by IMD, a top – notched business school in Switzerland in the new IMD World Talent Report 2014.

Malaysia has also moved up four notches from 2013 and is the only country in Asia among the top ten countries in the 2014 ranking. Overall, Switzerland topped the list followed by Denmark, Germany and Finland. Ireland is ranked sixth followed by Netherlands, Canada, Sweden and Norway, completing the top ten spots.

The new IMD report also identifies the most talent-competitive countries based on calculation of historical World Talent Rankings for each year from 2005 to 2014 and these are defined as those that ranked in the top 10 for five or more years during the ten-year period.

The report, which covered 60 countries, took into account a country’s ability to develop, attract and retain talent for companies that operate there. The report looked into 20 indicators within three key areas: investment and development in home-grown talent; appeal, which is a country’s ability to retain home-grown talent and attract talent from overseas; and readiness, an indication of a country’s ability to fulfil market demands with its available talent pool.

Under the investment and development factor, Denmark led the pack followed by Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Sweden. For the appeal factor, Switzerland is the top ranked with Germany in second position followed by the United States, Ireland and Malaysia while in the readiness category, Switzerland has also been ranked first, ahead of Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark and the United Arab Emirates.

In unveiling the report on Thursday, IMD World Competitiveness Centre Director Prof Arturo Bris said “The best-ranked countries have a balanced approach between their commitment to education, investment in developing local talent and their ability to attract overseas talent.” Countries with smart talent strategies are also highly agile in developing policies that improve their talent pipeline, he added.

Among the five ASEAN countries surveyed, Malaysia has been placed ahead of Singapore at second position (overall 16) followed by Indonesia (overall 25), Thailand (overall 34) and Philippines (overall 41).

Source: NST Business Times 24 Nov 2014 and IMD website

Posted on : 24 November 2014