Today Biscay presents the Competitiveness Index of Talent by cities in ECTCI

Today, 14 December, Bilbao becomes the seat of European talent thanks to the European Cities Talent Competitiveness Index Conference 2016 (ECTCI) with the stage of the Dome Hall of the Campos Eliseos theatre as a platform.

Bizkaia talent has organized this conference together with Tendensor International, a strategic consultancy focused on the management of brand image and the attraction and innovation capacity of cities, regions or clusters.

TALENTUAREN ALDEKO LEHIAKORTASUNAREN INDIZEA HIRIETAN

Cities and regions do not only compete for talent but often act as leaders which define new ways of developing, attracting and retaining talent. Cities and regions, which are competitive at a global level and relevant from a local and/or regional point of view, attract external knowledge and identify new roles and opportunities for themselves in the global economy.

This index is the result of a pioneering pilot project at the global level promoted by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia through the association to attract, retain and link talent, bizkaia talent, in collaboration with Bruno Lanvin’s team. Bruno Lanvin is INSEAD’s Executive Director for Global Indices, such as the Global Innovation Index or the Global Talent Competitiveness Index – GTCI, and throughout his professional career he has worked for the United Nations and the World Bank, among others. The Professor has also received assistance from numerous Basque agents to carry out this work.

The ECTCI index is an instrument which will enable the area of Bilbao, Bizkaia, Basque Country to measure its strengths as well as its weaknesses, anticipating the challenges and the needs which will be encountered in the next years as a consequence of both the lack as well as the mobility of highly-qualified staff. “All this will be reflected in the improvement of the ability to compete for the attraction and retention of the best talent at the global level, one of the main challenges that advanced economies will have to face in the next decades”, Jimenez pointed out.

Two of the highest ranked cities are Copenhagen and Gothenburg, the cities two of the lecturers at the Conference come from, from which numerous practices can be learnt and adapted.

Furthermore, Jimenez states that even though large cities and metropolitan areas have some undeniable advantages, “medium-sized cities, due to their flexibility, are carrying out activities and strategies which can be used as a reference, thus promoting a collaborative ecosystem between different social agents in the development of the various plans and activities”.

“Those who attend this meeting will find out the position Bilbao occupies in the ranking of the 27 cities which represent a similar section of EU regions”, the Managing Director of bizkaia talent advanced.

Moreover, this study will reveal the main strengths and weaknesses of the areas of Bilbao, Bizkaia, Basque Country throughout the dimensions of talent competitiveness, as well as the specific short and long-term action points to be taken into account by the various agents of the public, private and academic sphere.