Hong Kong retained its seventh-place ranking for a second year in the annual Global Competitiveness Index released by the World Economic Forum yesterday, with middling scores on education and innovation preventing it from rising higher.

The index ranks the competitiveness of 144 economies, based on indicators covering infrastructure, education, institutions and nine other categories. To boost its competitiveness ranking, Hong Kong must improve higher education, where it ranked 22nd, and innovation, where it fell three places to 26th.

Writes Alice Woodhouse for South China Morning Post.

Read the full article here.

Commentary by Steve Corry, Regional Business Development Manager, British Council:

The first choice among many students is to study locally; however this combined with a fairly insular culture and decline in overall English ability, result in a danger of Hong Kong losing its international focus and competitiveness. Overseas study is supported by the Hong Kong government as part of the education landscape, and this is set to remain the case. With a need to maintain an international outlook, it is important for a portion of Hong Kong’s professional workforce to be educated overseas, and this is a message that UK institutions should look to communicate when speaking to potential students and parents about employability.


Should you have any queries about the Hong Kong market and prospects for student recruitment or TNE, please contact Steve Corry at Steven.corry@britishcouncil.org.hk.