The index is based on a nation’s ability to grow, attract and retain talent.

It finds that Thailand’s modest showing is due to a struggle in imparting employable skills and enhance labour productivity, although market conditions are good.

“Thailand has good market conditions and good performance in growing its own talent,” said the research by INSEAD, Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore and the Adecco Group.

However it struggles in attracting talent – inter-regional and from abroad – and in converting existing talent into better performance in terms of employable skills, including global skills and higher levels of labour productivity,”

“With Thai companies, particularly those in the area of technology, continuing to expand globally, the need for strong talent development in Thailand is more important than ever before. As a country, we need to continually look at new ways to develop our talent base,” said Tidarat Kanchanawat, country manager of Adecco Thailand.

Kwan Chee Wei, CEO of HCLI, added: “In certain Asian countries, there is a need to see value and worth in both professional and technical vocations. Beyond this, traditional hierarchies and bureaucracy in many Asian corporates often hold back openness, transparency and empowerment – important levers in accelerating talent growth.”

The research finds that investment in “employable skills” and vocational education is the key to attracting, retaining and developing talent.

Globally, Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg lead the rankings.

As in 2013, GTCI rankings are dominated by European countries, with only six non-European countries in the top 20: Singapore (2), the United States (5), Canada (5), Australia (9), New Zealand (16) and Japan (20).

“It’s really quite striking that among the top three countries – Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg – two are landlocked and one is an island,” said Bruno Lanvin, executive director of Global Indices at INSEAD, and co-author of the report.

Faced with specific geographical challenges and a quasi-absence of natural resources, these countries have had no choice but to be open economies, a critical ingredient to being talent competitive. The top countries in this year’s GTCI have played the game of globalisation, and have played it well, said Lanvin.

The research also found that a focus on “employable skills” and continued investment in vocational education underpins success in developing, attracting and retaining top talent.

Many of the other economies in the “top 20” have strong immigration traditions, including the US (4), Canada (5), Sweden (6), the United Kingdom (7), and Australia (9). These high-performing countries also have long prioritised education, as is the case for the other Scandinavian countries, all in the top 15: Denmark (8), Norway (11), and Finland (13).

A total of 93 countries, representing 83.8 per cent of the world’s population and 96.2 per cent of the world’s GDP in US dollar terms, were analysed for the indexindex, which aims to provide a practical and strategic tool for governments, businesses and not-for-profit organisations to inform policies in areas such as education, human resources and immigration.