Labour helps Singapore hit top spot for competitiveness

Singapore has been ranked the world’s most competitive nation, based on the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report. The WEF measures more than 100 key indicators including inflation, digital skills, trade tariffs and labour market, where Singapore scored the highest.

The report notes that finding a balance between technology integration and human capital investments will be critical to enhancing productivity in the future. It also highlights the need for talent to be adaptable. ‘’Talent adaptability also requires a well-functioning labour market that protects workers rather than jobs’’.

The Global Competitiveness Report singled out the emerging economies with growing innovation capacity, such as China, India and Brazil, that must also better balance technological integration and human capital investments.

WEF introduced a new term/concept it calls “flexicurity’’. This is a guarantee that the state will support a worker should they become unemployed. The key components underpinning flexicurity are flexible contractual arrangement, life-long learning, active labour market policies and worker rights’ protection.