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Dubai / WAM
The UAE occupied the first regional position and the 17th international position on the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), according to the 2018 publication issued by the Business School for the World (INSEAD), in France.
The report is a comprehensive annual benchmarking measuring how countries and cities grow, attract and retain talent, providing a unique resource for decision makers to understand the global talent competitiveness picture and develop strategies for boosting their competitiveness.
The UAE advanced two positions in this report compared to last year’s ranking, as it was ranked among the 20 best countries in the world on the index, topping GCC, Middle East and African countries.
Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Chairwoman of Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA), expressed her pride in this achievement and thanked all government authorities and private sector companies for their co-operation in supporting the UAE’s competitiveness. She stressed that UAE’s progress in the talent competitiveness index proves to the world the efficiency of its comprehensive development strategy, based on the directives of its wise leadership.
The 2018 edition of GTCI includes 68 variables (65 in 2017), covering 119 countries and 90 cities (respectively 118 and 46 in 2017). This
year again, GTCI scores are led by
developed, high-income countries.
Switzerland maintains its number 1 position, followed by Singapore and the US. European countries continue to dominate the GTCI rankings, with 15 of them in the top 25. Among the non-European countries ranking high this year, are Australia (11th), New Zealand (12th), Canada (15th), the UAE (17th), and Japan (20th) for example.
Malik Al Madani, Director of the Competitiveness Strategy Department in the Authority, stressed that today the UAE is enjoying the fruits of years of hard work to provide a powerful infrastructure and an attractive economic and investment environment as well as establish an advanced education sector. He pointed out that all these components promote the development of human resources in the country and support its progress and international competitiveness.
He added that the UAE achieved an exceptional performance in a number of key pillars and sub-indexes in this year’s report, after occupying the first international position in five sub-indexes including easy employment, each employee’s productivity, and international students’ attraction.
He highlighted that the UAE achieved the second international position in the strength of work relations between the government and business index, economic blocs/free zones, attracting minds and talents, and the third international position in the foreign direct investment and technology transfer and maintaining minds and talents.
He said that this year’s report witnessed an improvement in a number of pillars and sub-indexes as the country jumped by 13 positions compared to last year’s ranking to the first international position in the professional and technical skills pillar, measuring the availability of the required professional and technical skills in the different labour market sectors.
He pointed that the UAE secured the third place internationally in attraction, which evaluates its ability to attract the best skills from outside the country, in addition to the country’s advancement of 19 levels in this year’s report in the growth axis, which measures the average growth of talent available in the country.
Al Madani said that the country is working to achieve its vision of becoming one of the best countries in the world by the UAE Centennial 2071, by focussing on future foresight, building an economy based on knowledge, creating an attracting business atmosphere, following innovation, and providing an advanced knowledge infrastructure, which supports the creation and exchange of knowledge.