Taiwan leaps seven spots to 20th in IMD World Talent Ranking

台灣在IMD世界人才評比躍升7位 全球排名第20

Taiwan ranks 2nd in Eastern Asia in IMD World Talent Ranking 2019

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan has jumped seven spots to take the 20th position in this year's World Talent Ranking compiled by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD).

The report, titled the "IMD World Talent Ranking 2019," which was released on Monday (Nov. 18), assesses the ability of 63 economies to develop, attract, and retain highly skilled professionals. The ranking takes three factors into consideration: Investment and Development, Appeal, and Readiness.

Taiwan was listed as seeing one of the largest increases outside the top 10 from the previous year, with a seven-spot surge to 20th overall. The report attributed Taiwan's rise to its 12th place ranking in the Readiness factor, which quantifies the quality of the skills and competencies of a country's talent pool.

Under Readiness, Taiwan improved in the availability of finance skills (22nd), senior managers with international experience (36th), and the availability of competent senior managers (31st). The report added that other positive factors include a marked improvement in business perceptions about the level of worker motivation (12th), the impact of the brain drain (46th), the quality of life (30th), and prioritization of attracting and retaining talent (38th).

In Eastern Asia, Taiwan took 2nd, trailing only Hong Kong, which will surely suffer a drop as residents flee the chaos ensuing from the brutal police crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in the Special Administrative Region. The report mentioned Appeal and Readiness as the key factors enhancing the performance of the sub-region.

Overall in the world, Switzerland took first place, with Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland, Finland, the Netherlands, and Singapore rounding out the top 10. As usual, Taiwan punched above its weight by taking 4th in the entire continent of Asia, trailing only Singapore (10th), Hong Kong (15th), and Israel (19th).

The IMD partners with local institutes to access data from national sources and help distribute the survey questionnaires. In the case of Taiwan, IMD partnered with the National Development Council.