Brain drain could become a new challenge for South Korea in sustaining competitiveness as it fails to attract foreign talent as well as keeping nationals at home.

According to the IMD World Talent Report 2017 released by Switzerland’s International Institute for Management Development on Sunday, Korea came in 39th in world talent ranking among the 63 countries studied, with a score of 55.82 out of a total 100.

Korea’s ranking slipped two years in a row, from 32nd in 2015 to 38th last year. This is contrary to its neighboring country China that has quickly narrowed the gap with Korea, moving to 40th this year from 42nd in 2016.

The IMD World Talent Ranking is based on three factors - investment and development, appeal and readiness - with the three categories further broken down into 30 components assessing how countries perform in a wide range of areas, including education, workplace training, quality of life and remuneration levels.

Data showed that Korea lagged in the appeal factor, or the ability to retain and attract talent. It stood 59th in worker motivation, scoring 4.12 out of 10. It also scored 54th in brain drain, indicating a mass departure of educated professionals from Korea to other countries.

Europe continued to dominate the list, with Switzerland at the top followed by Denmark and Belgium. In Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore ranked high at 12th and 13th, respectively. Taiwan came in 23rd, Malaysia 28th and Japan 31st.

By Ahn Jeong-hoon and Kim Hyo-jin

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