The Adecco Group, a leading recruitment & staffing agency and total human resources solutions provider, has partnered with Google and INSEAD to reveal the 2020 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), with Bangkok now ranking the second city with the highest talent competitiveness in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) after Singapore.
GTCI is an annual benchmarking tool ranking countries and major cities using a total of six criteria from Enable, Attract, Grow, Retain, Vocational & Technical Skills, to Global Knowledge Skills to rank the competitiveness of human resources in each location.
This year, the city with the most competitive human resources is “New York” which scored highest on the index, with “London” ranking second and “Singapore” ranking third. Meanwhile, “Bangkok” is ranked second among AEC countries which reflects the city’s talented human resources pool as well as Bangkok’s potential to become a business hub in the region. Bangkok has been ranked higher on the index every year, jumping from 78th, to 65th, to 57th this year, and the city has now ranked above Malaysia’s capital “Kuala Lumpur” for two consecutive years.
Overall, Thailand scored higher on the index this year with a score of 41.30 compared to 38.62 last year. However, Thailand’s progress is still slow compared to other countries, with its ranking falling from 66th to 67th due to the rankings for Global Skills Knowledge, Vocational & Technical Skills, and Enable coming in lower than last year while Indonesia has surpassed the country and saw its rankings going up to 65th, making it the 4th highest ranking country in AEC.
Globally, the nation with the highest ranking is Switzerland, which also ranked first last year, followed by the United States which ranks second, resulting in Singapore falling to the third position, while Sweden ranks fourth and Denmark ranks fifth.
Tidarat Kanchanawat, Country Director, the Adecco Group Thailand said, “The fact that Thailand had a higher overall score but fell in rankings is due to the adoption of artificial intelligence or AI which has prompted international markets to demand workers with diverse and a higher level of skill. Thus, compared to other countries, Thailand’s human resources may lack a competitive edge in this highly competitive market. Therefore, Thailand should accelerate the development of its human resources in order for them to gain skills that are desired in international markets, from digital, technological, creative thinking, foreign languages, to vocational skills, so that we can build a competitive advantage. Moreover, Thailand must reform its education system and promote lifelong learning so that our human resources are able to adapt to changes in the digital era.”
“Apart from these skills, internal factors that should be taken into account include government policies, political stability, the corruption index, the state of the labor market, the ease of doing business, and measures to promote investment in technology and research, as all of these factors can help raise the capability of human resources in Thailand.”
