Hong Kong beats Singapore in attracting expats

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Swiss Business school behind the survey, IMD, ranked Switzerland as the best place for expats.

Singapore trailed behind Hong Kong as one of the most attractive countries for foreign talent as it placed 13th in the fourth annual World Talent Ranking by the World Competitiveness Center at IMD.

The study revealed that across ranking categories, Singapore ranked 41st in terms of investment and development, 17th in terms of appeal, and two in terms of readiness.

Overall, it trailed slightly behind Hong Kong SAR, which ranked 12th. Switzerland led the global rankings.

IMD World Competitiveness Center director Arturo Bris commented, "In Singapore, the big concern is the more negative sentiment around its prospects for the future. The high level of indebtedness, the difficulty in supporting investment in education, and an increasing cost of living, all make attracting foreign talent to the city-state much more difficult."

IMD found that Singapore had some of its weakest points in its investment and development category.

The country ranked 59th in terms of total public expenditure on education with a score of 2.9%. It also ranked low at 46 in terms of public expenditure per pupil with a score of 16.7%.

Within the study's appeal category, Singapore was able to find some top strengths. It ranked third in terms of foreign highly skilled personnel which are attracted to the country's business environment and scored 8.22 out of 10 in a survey.

However, it ranked 45th in terms of effective personal income tax rate and 59th in the cost-of-living index.

Singapore performed strongly in the index's readiness category.

It ranked first in terms of science in schools, because IMD said, it was sufficiently emphasised. It also got first place in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The Lion City had the third most mobile inbound students, which measured the number of foreign tertiary-level students per 1000 inhabitants.

It also ranked fourth in terms of management education.