Editorial | Survey shows Hong Kong talent search is paying off
Official recognition of city’s efforts to attract and foster those who enhance competitiveness bodes well for future
It can be more symbolic than meaningful for the city to be ranked either just in or just out of the top 10 on one measure or another. But when it comes to recognition of efforts to attract and foster talent that enhances competitiveness, Hong Kong’s leap from 16th to ninth place shows one of the government’s main economic recovery strategies is on track.
The annual talent survey of 64 economies by the International Institute for Management Development placed Singapore second globally behind Switzerland, up from eighth, and first in the Asia-Pacific. A Hong Kong government spokesman hailed the result as evidence that its work in education and talent admission had made remarkable achievements towards transforming the city into a postsecondary education hub and a cradle of future talent.
The ranking exercise recognised both areas of improvement and the need for it. The city was among the world’s top five in terms of the percentages of graduates in sciences and the female labour force, finance skills and management education, as well as management pay.
But rankings lagged in other areas, such as growth in the labour force, total public expenditure on education – as opposed to spending per student – as well as cost of living. Singapore owed its high ranking to availability of skilled labour, finance skills and senior managers.
Up to August, under various talent admission schemes to increase Hong Kong’s skilled workforce, more than 360,000 applications have resulted in nearly 230,000 approvals and more than 150,000 arrivals. This has paved the way forward on a national scale.
