Vietnam ranks 92nd out of 125 countries and territories in global talent competitiveness, falling five positions against the previous year's standing, according to the 2019 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) report.

Part of the table of Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2019 rankings

The report, made by INSEAD in collaboration with The Adecco Group and Tata Communications, helps measuring the development, talent attractiveness and performance in retaining talent among nations and cities. The report, which was published today, January 21, also helps raise the competitiveness of different economies.

The GTCI 2019 report showed that Vietnam dropped from 87th place last year to 92nd, marking the country’s reduction in Global Talent Competitiveness Index for the fifth consecutive year. The country ranked 86th among 118 countries and territories in 2017 and took 82nd place among the total 109 in 2016.

The GTCI 2019 report indicated that Switzerland, Singapore and the United States continue to lead the world in talent competitiveness, while countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa are seeing a progressive erosion of their talent base. The report confirmed that talent issues have become a mainstream concern for firms, nations and cities, with talent performance seen as a critical factor to growth and prosperity.

This year’s report has a special focus on entrepreneurial talent, examining how it is being encouraged, nurtured and developed throughout the world and how this affects the relative competitiveness of different economies. The results further show the highest-ranking countries and cities tend to be the most open to entrepreneurial talent, and digitalization and globalization are increasing the role of entrepreneurial talent.

In addition, the report shows that Vietnam is strong in “Global Knowledge Skills” (69th) and the ability to “Enable” (80th), but the ability to “Attract” (91st) and “Vocational and Technical Skills” (109th) are still low.

Andree Mangels, general director of Adecco Vietnam, remarked in a statement: “The Vietnamese workforce, despite being hardworking and having a great start-up spirit, is not yet ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The revolution will replace repetitive jobs with artificial intelligence or automation, while the demand for technical, higher cognitive, social and emotional skills will surge.”

He added that Vietnamese employees need to learn new skills and upgrade old skills using online and offline resources.

The report also revealed that cities rather than countries are developing stronger roles as talent hubs and will be crucial in reshaping the global talent scene. This growing importance of cities is due to their greater flexibility and ability to adapt to new trends and patterns. As nimble economic units where policy can be changed more swiftly, cities are more attractive to talent, especially entrepreneurial talent. Vietnam’s representative, Hanoi, ranks 110 out of 114 cities.

For the first time, the 2019 GTCI provided a longitudinal analysis of talent competitiveness based on the results of all GTCI editions since 2013. The main finding is that the gap between the talent champions from the rest of the global community has been widening. Talent competitiveness is strengthening in groups of countries where it is already comparatively high and weakening in those where it is relatively low.

The report measures levels of Global Talent Competitiveness by looking at 68 variables. The 2019 index covers 125 national economies and 114 cities across all groups of income and levels of development.

SGT