KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is Southeast Asia’s second best nation, and 33rd in the world, when it comes to developing its human capital, according to the Wold Economic Forum.
In its 2017 Human Capital Report, the WEF ranks 130 countries on how well they are developing their human capital on a scale from zero (worst) to 100 (best) across four thematic dimensions and five distinct age groups to capture the full human capital potential profile of a country.
WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab said the Fourth Industrial Revolution does not just disrupt employment, it creates a shortfall of newly-required skills.
“Therefore, we are facing a global talent crisis. We need a new mind-set and a true revolution to adapt our educational systems to the education needed for the future work force,” Schwab said in its statement.
WEF head of education, gender and work Saadia Zahidi said countries’ strategies for developing human capital should vary according to demographic structure.
“However, every country risks creating lost generations if they fail to adopt a more holistic approach to nurturing talent that takes into account a proactive approach to managing the transition from education to employment and to ongoing learning and skills acquisition,” she added.
Of the 10 Southeast Asian countries included in the report’s Human Capital Index, Singapore (11th globally) came in tops, followed by Malaysia (33rd globally) and Thailand (40th globally). The Philippines (50th globally) and Brunei (58th globally) rounded up the top five.
Globally, the top 10 of this year’s list is led by smaller European countries. Norway topped the list, followed by Finland (2nd), Switzerland (3rd) as well as large economies such as the United States (4th) and Germany (6th).
Four countries from the East Asia and the Pacific region (New Zealand 7th, Singapore 11th, Japan 17th and Australia 20th), three countries from the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region (Slovenia 9th, Estonia 12th, Russia 16th), and one country from the Middle East and North Africa region (Israel 18th) are also ranked in the Index top 20.
The report also found that on average, the world has developed only 62 per cent of its human capital.
Across the index, only 25 nations have tapped 70 per cent of their people’s human capital or more.
In addition, 50 countries scored between 60 per cent and 70 per cent.
A further 41 countries score between 50 per cent and 60 per cent, while 14 countries remain below 50 per cent.