VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam ranked 75th out of 93 economies in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) in 2014, a minor change compared to the 82nd position out of 103 countries in the previous year, according to a report released o Wednesday.

GTCI ranks 93 countries based on their ability to grow, attract and retain talent, as a global talent mismatch sees vacant jobs despite mass unemployment.

The index is a partnership between graduate business school INSEAD (France), the Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore and Adecco Group of Switzerland.

The report said that as the global economic slowdown and unemployment still pose a threat, businesses and governments must concentrate on overcoming the skills imbalance.

Vietnam scores relatively high in global knowledge skills, despite its low performance in developing the country’s own talent via formal education, the report said.

Last year, the index placed Switzerland at number one, followed by Singapore, Luxembourg, the United States, Canada, Sweden, the UK, Denmark, Australia and Ireland.

Bruno Lanvin, executive director of Global Indices at INSEAD and co-author of the report, said the top countries in this year’s GTCI have played the game of globalization and have played it well.

Many of the other economies in the ‘top 20’ have strong immigration traditions, including the U.S. (4), Canada (5), Sweden (6), the UK (7) and Australia (9). These high-performing countries also have long prioritized education, as is the case for the other Scandinavian countries, all in the top 15: Denmark (8), Norway (11) and Finland (13).

Nicola Connolly, general director of Adecco Vietnam, said as the economy is recovering, both local and international companies in Vietnam are in need of skilled employees. Even though the talent pool is not large, Vietnam is good at employing its existing talent and higher skills in innovation activities and entrepreneurship.

However, its key challenge lies in growing new talent, as Vietnam does not perform well in terms of formal education and lifelong learning, thus creating a wider skills gap, Connolly said.

A total of 93 countries, representing 83.8% of the world’s population and 96.2% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), were analyzed for the index.    

SGT