The Hong Kong government has praised its education, innovation and technology, and talent admission policies after the city ranked fourth in the World Talent Ranking 2025.
Hong Kong climbed five places, from ninth last year, to reach its highest-ever ranking on the scoreboard compiled by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, the government announced on Tuesday.
Switzerland came first, followed by Luxembourg and Iceland. Hong Kong ranked first among other Asian countries and cities, while its rival, Singapore, fell five places to seventh.
The report noted that Hong Kong exhibited “significant volatility over the last decade” in the ranking. The city reached ninth in 2016 and fell drastically to 18th in 2018, but it “gradually returned to form” later, making the top 10 again last year and achieving its best performance this year.
According to the report, Hong Kong improved across all three talent competitiveness factors – “appeal,” “readiness,” and “investment and development.” Hong Kong also continued to top the ranking in the percentage of graduates in the sciences. The city’s strengths also included female labour force participation, the availability of finance skills, and the effectiveness of management education.
“Hong Kong is also becoming more attractive to foreign highly skilled talent, and executives report greater availability of skilled labour,” the report read.
However, the report also notes the city’s weaknesses, including high exposure to particle pollution, negative labour force growth, and low public expenditure on education. The city also ranked lowest in terms of cost of living.
In response, the Hong Kong government hailed the ranking, saying that its policies and measures in education, innovation and technology, and talent admission “have found the right direction.”
The government is dedicated to investing in education and turning the city into an international hub for “exchanges and collaboration among high-calibre talent.” It added that scholarship programmes were launched to “attract quality talent from around the world and nurture local talent.”
“Hong Kong ranking first in Asia in the IMD’s World Talent Ranking is clear evidence that the policies and measures of the HKSAR Government in education, innovation and technology, and talent admission have found the right direction and are getting results,” the government said.
As of the end of August, more than 520,000 applications had been received under various talent admission schemes, the government said on Tuesday. Over 350,000 applications were approved, and more than 230,000 people have arrived in Hong Kong through various schemes.
Hong Kong introduced a new talent scheme, called the Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS), in late 2022 and also expanded various existing immigration programmes to attract talent to the city, following a wave of emigration from the city in the aftermath of the national security law and the Covid-19 pandemic.
With a lower threshold than other programmes, the TTPS contributes a major share of work visas in Hong Kong. Official figures showed that three-quarters of the overall work visa holders were from mainland China. Under the TTPS, the share of mainland Chinese was much higher: a whopping 95 per cent.
