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Talent exodus knocks U.S. down in innovators list
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 18 March 2009, 19:21 IST   |    4 Comments
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Talent exodus knocks U.S. down in innovators list
Washington: If you think the U.S. is the world's top innovative country, you are wrong. The U.S. stands at 8th position, ahead of Japan (No. 9) and Germany (No. 19) but well behind the two leaders from Asia - Singapore at No. 1 and South Korea at No. 2, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCG, last week released a survey of 110 countries worldwide looking at the ones with government policies and corporate performance most encouraging to innovation, reports BusinessWeek. James P. Andrew, the leader of BCG's global innovation practice and co-author of the report, says, "The quality of the workforce in the U.S. is the biggest problem that many respondents had." As part of the survey, BCG questioned some 800 high-level executives at U.S. companies, and many put concerns about human resources at the top of the list of concerns. "Are we developing the skills at the high school level?" asks Andrew, explaining the responses researchers often encountered. American multinationals have been among the most vocal in calling for the government to allow highly-skilled people from other countries to work in the U.S. However, data released last month showed that many of the 65,000 H-1B visas went to Indian outsourcing companies that have used the program to send low-cost engineers from India to the U.S. And now due to recession, lawmakers in Washington are calling for more restrictions on H-1B visas. At the same time the top-performing country in BCG's list, Singapore, has long focused on trying to attract foreign workers and encourage locals to go abroad in order to boost their skills. Every year, Singapore gives 100 scholarships to science and engineering students, funding their doctorate programs in foreign universities. "In order to do well, you need people trained abroad," says Beh Kian Teik, director of biomedical sciences at the Singapore government's Economic Development Board.

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