EDITORIAL - Talent laggard

In yet another indication of the continuing slide in Philippine competitiveness, the country slipped three spots in this year’s World Talent Ranking. From 60th out of 64 economies last year, the Philippines is now at 63rd spot out of 67 economies rated by the Institute for Management Development or IMD World Competitiveness Center.

It is the worst ranking for the Philippines in two decades, and it places the country at 13th out of 14 economies in the Asia-Pacific, ahead only of Mongolia, which took the worst spot at 67th. Globally, the Philippines ranked among the five worst, ahead of Ghana (64th place), Venezuela (65th) and Brazil (66th).

The rankings rate the state and growth of skills that are essential for businesses and the overall economy, using three main indicators. One is the economy’s “appeal” in attracting foreign talent and retaining local ones. In drawing foreign talent, the country improved slightly in terms of cost of living, but was at a low 57th place in terms of quality of life. Meanwhile, in retaining talent, the Philippines is unable to stop the continuing exodus of workers, whether blue collar or highly skilled, for greener pastures overseas. The problem is so bad that certain industries in the Philippines cannot find the needed skilled workers for their operations.

A second factor is the level of “investment and development” of the local workforce. The third is “readiness,” referring to the current overall quality of a country’s talent pool. The Philippines received the lowest scores in investment and development of its workforce. Among the factors considered were the inadequacy of apprenticeship programs and employee training by the private sector as well as the low public expenditure on education and the pupil-teacher ratio for primary and secondary education.

Switzerland topped the global list, followed by perennial Asian achiever Singapore. Rounding out the top five were Luxembourg, Sweden and Denmark. In the Asia-Pacific, the Philippines trailed Hong Kong (9th), Australia (14th), Taiwan (18th), South Korea (26th), Malaysia (33rd), China (38th), New Zealand (39th), Japan (43rd), Indonesia (46th) and Thailand (47th).

An IMD economist cited the low investment in education and poor quality of learning as key reasons for the Philippines being a regional talent laggard. The country is aware of this problem. What’s needed is more resolute action and greater investments to raise the quality of the country’s most precious resource, its people.