Philippines ranks 45th in world talent competitiveness

By Helen Flores and Catherine Talavera (The Philippine Star), Nov 21, 2017

MANILA, Philippines — Despite low investments in education, the Philippines has improved its position in the 2017 World Talent Ranking report released by leading global business school International Institute for Management Development (IMD) yesterday.

The Philippines ranked 45th out of 63 countries surveyed, jumping several spots from No. 51 out of 61 nations rated in 2016.

This is the Philippines’ strongest performance after dipping to No. 57 in 2015.

The top 10 countries in this year’s World Talent Ranking are Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Sweden and Luxembourg, in that order.

“These top five economies invest heavily to maintain outstanding educational and healthcare systems, offer a superior quality of life and provide attractive remuneration and opportunities for career advancement,” the report said.

To assess how economies perform, the IMD World Talent Ranking studied three factors: investment and development, which measures the resources committed to cultivate homegrown talent; appeal, which evaluates the ability to attract and retain talent; and readiness, which quantifies the quality of the available skills in the talent pool.

“Readiness is the factor in which the Philippine shined, climbing to 11th place in 2017 from 23rd in 2016,” the report said.

The country ranked fourth in labor force growth, sixth in skilled labor and 13th in terms of language skills, the report said.

It placed 33rd in cost-of-living-index, 24th in attracting and retaining talents and 23rd in worker motivation.

In contrast, areas for improvement under readiness included the ability of the educational system to meet the needs of a competitive economy (31st) and emphasis on science in schools (37th).

Meanwhile, the Philippines rose four places to No. 34 in appeal this year from No. 38 last year.

“The country remained the 13th most appealing in terms of the effective personal income tax rate as a percentage of an income equal to (the gross domestic product) per capita and ranked in the upper half of countries for worker motivation in companies (23rd) and the prioritization of attracting and retaining talents in companies (24th),” the report said.

The Philippines’ overall ranking for appeal, however was weighed down by poor performance in terms of remuneration in service professions (56th), the protection of personal security and private property rights (49th), quality of life (47th) and the effect of brain drain on the competitiveness of the economy (40th).

Despite climbing in the readiness and appeal factors, the country landed at the bottom of the rankings (63rd) in investment and development.

“Like in 2016, four of the country’s five worst-ranked criteria are included in this factor,” the report said.

The Philippines placed 60th in terms of public expenditure on education, with the government spending only 2.7 percent of its GDP for the sector.

The country also scored low in the area of pupil-teacher ratio in primary education and pupil-teacher ratio in secondary education, ranking 62nd and 59th, respectively.

It placed 51st in terms of female participation in the labor force.

The Philippines’ strongest performance under investment and development are in the sufficiency of apprenticeships (30th) and the importance given to employee training in companies (29th).

The bottom-ranking countries in this year’s report are Bulgaria, Ukraine, Croatia, Romania, Mongolia and Venezuela.