Hong Kong has achieved its best-ever performance in the World Talent Ranking compiled by the International Institute for Management Development, leaping to fourth place globally from ninth last year and claiming the top spot in Asia.
The city’s top official, Chief Executive John Lee, announced the result at the Hong Kong ASEAN Summit on Tuesday.
“Our ranking rose 12 places over the past two years, a clear testament to the government’s enhanced efforts in education and talent development,” he said during his keynote speech. The SAR launched a suite of measures in 2022 to attract and retain talent in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the city’s period of unrest in 2019.
The IMD report showed Hong Kong improved across all three measured factors: “appeal” rose eight places to 20th, while “readiness” and “investment and development” both edged up one place to third and 12th, respectively. The city also ranked first globally for the percentage of graduates in sciences, third in availability of finance skills, and fifth in management remuneration and effectiveness of management education.
[See more: The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster comes first in global innovation]
Switzerland took the top slot in the overall World Talent Ranking, followed by Luxembourg then Iceland.
The Netherlands rounded out the top five, and Singapore – in 7th place – was the next best performing Asian entry. China ranked 38th, between South Korea and Puerto Rico. A total of 68 countries and territories made the list, which did not include Macao.
A Hong Kong government spokesman highlighted the city’s five world-ranked universities and its internationalised, diversified post-secondary education sector as key strengths. Recent measures such as scholarships, the “Study in Hong Kong” brand, and targeted admission schemes have drawn global talent, with over 520,000 applications received since late 2022 and more than 230,000 approved entrants arriving with their families.
The government said the results underscored its broader strategy of positioning Hong Kong as an international hub for high-calibre talent and innovation, aligned with the Greater Bay Area’s rise as a global innovation cluster.
