Hong Kong has ranked 9th in the World Talent Ranking 2024, according to the latest report from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), up from the 16th spot last year.                                      

With improvement across all three talent competitiveness factors, Hong Kong’s position rose from six to four in ‘readiness,’ from 15 to 13 in ‘investment and development,’ and the ‘appeal’ ranking also moved up from 32 to 28.

One of the key factors is that Hong Kong topped the ranking in the percentage of graduates in sciences, with 42.87 percent of graduates in Information and communications technology, Engineering, Math & Natural Sciences. It was also the global top five in the availability of finance skills (scoring 7.59 out of 10), the effectiveness of management education (scoring 7.96 out of 10), and remuneration of management.

Hong Kong's return to the top 10 in the ranking showed that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government's efforts in education and talent admission have paid off, said a spokesperson for the HKSAR government.

By the end of August, the government received over 360,000 applications through various talent admission programs, with nearly 230,000 applications getting the green light. During the same period, over 150,000 professionals arrived in Hong Kong under talent programs.