Taiwan jumps to 20th in IMD World Talent Ranking

Brussels, Nov. 18 (CNA) Taiwan jumped seven spots in the annual World Talent Ranking for 2019 compiled by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD), moving from 27th to 20th, the country's highest ranking since 2013.

Published Monday, the report assesses the ability of 63 economies to develop, attract and retain talent for enterprises operating in those economies.

In Asia, Taiwan ranked only behind Singapore (10th) and Hong Kong (15th), and was ahead of Malaysia (22nd), South Korea (33rd) and Japan (35th).

Worldwide, Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden remained the top three performers this year, followed by Austria and Luxembourg, according to the report.

The report is based on three factors: investment and development of home-grown talent; appeal -- the ability of the country to tap into the overseas talent pool; and readiness -- the availability of skills and competencies in the talent pool.

In the three main categories, Taiwan rose one place to 24th in investment and development and three notches to 29th in appeal. The nation soared 15 spots to place 12th in readiness, which largely contributed to its rise in the rankings.

Taiwan improved in more than half of the indicators in the readiness category, including international experience of senior managers, competent senior managers and finance skills.

According to the report, Taiwan scored top spots in indicators including educational assessment (2nd), graduates in sciences (3rd) and health infrastructure (6th).

Indicators where Taiwan performed poorly included attraction of highly-skilled foreign personnel (48th), which ranked how attractive Taiwan's business environment was to foreign talent, and cost of living (48th).

Taiwan also ranked 46th in three other indicators: total public expenditure on education, pupil-teacher ratio in secondary schools and brain drain.