ABSTRACT
Asia is a vast continent encompassing three of the world’s most competitive economies (Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong SAR) with three more within the top twenty (World Economic Forum, 2015). Over the past couple of decades, Asia has emerged as a hotbed for business opportunity. Low-cost manufacturing, enhanced personal wealth, a larger middle class, an increasingly open and pro-business environment have all been strong contributors to this. The Asian economies appeared to buffer the most negative impacts of the 2007–2009 global financial crisis, relative to much of the Western world with economic growth continuing across much of the region. A concern that has surfaced over the past decade, and which shows little sign of changing, has been in relation to ensuring that there is a sufficient supply of talent. This threatens business and economic prosperity across many industries and countries. While each country has its strengths and limitations, the quality and supply of talent is seemingly a consistently pressing issue across most of the Asian countries, albeit not always for the same reasons. Vorhauser-Smith and Cariss (2014) suggest that of the Southeast Asian economies, only Singapore possessed the educational standards that multinational companies (MNCs) require for their skilled roles. Yet, on the other hand, Singapore has one of the more aging populations and workforces in Asia. Consequently, talent shortages may be a concern in Singapore albeit for potentially different reasons to other countries in the region, that is, countries with youthful populations but which are less educated and qualified. Similar talent availability concerns, as will be articulated in the chapter, exist in other Asian economies, most notably in China.
