Croatia ranks 53rd in the latest global talent rankings prepared by the Lausanne-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD).

The rankings cover 63 countries and the objective of this publication is to assess the extent to which countries develop, attract and retain talent to sustain the pool that enterprises employ to create long-term value.

The IMD World Talent Ranking studies three factors: Investment & Development, Appeal, and Readiness, and those factors include 31 indicators. The findings are based on the collected statistical data and on the opinions provided by business people.

Croatia has the best performance in the Investment & Development factor, occupying the 32nd place.

Among the top ten countries, eight are European countries, and Switzerland tops the list.

Considering new EU member-states, the best performer is Estonia, 19th, while Slovenia and Latvia occupy the 30th and 33rd place, Poland ranks 35th and the Czech Republic 39th.

Ivica Mudrinic, the head of the Croatian National Competitiveness Council, which published the results of the latest ranking on Thursday, said that “the current turbulent times have been bringing a lot of change to our lives and the way of functioning of a number of countries and humankind as a whole.”

“Unfortunately, Croatia’s position on the ranking does not reflect any general progress,” Mudrinic said, adding that some headway has been made through digitisation and many initativies, including the “School for Life” plan.