Talent is the new Geo-political Battleground
Make no mistake. Geo-politics is having a significant impact on the shape of the global world order as the world slowly recovers from COVID-19. Whilst geo-politics have always played a role in influencing cross-border decisions, COVID-19 has raised the stakes significantly in a remarkably short time.
There is no better example of the emerging influence of geo-politics and its impact on the movement of talent than the developments in Hong Kong. The fact that this is being played out in one of the world’s most important financial hubs makes it a fascinating insight into how talent has become the new geo-political battleground.
The recent announcement by the Australian Government of a number of new measures to support Hong Kong nationals to remain in Australia and to attract Hong Kong based businesses to relocate their operations or workforce to Australia will have lasting repercussions for the Asia Pacific region.
The announcement by the Australian Government on Hong Kong follows on from a similar announcement by the British Government that it would honour a promise to offer nearly 3 million residents of the former British colony, those with British national overseas status (BNO), the right to settle in the UK.
The last time the Australian Government made a decision of this geo-political magnitude coincidently also involved China. The student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing during 1989 saw the Australian Government issue safe haven visas to protesters. This too drew the ire of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Hong Kong announcement has similar humanitarian motives to the Tiananmen Square safe haven visas announced in 1989, but also has some important and significant differences. Humanitarian concerns were the foundation for the Tiananmen Square safe haven visa. In the case of the Hong Kong announcement however, this is both a humanitarian motive, but also a pitch to attract high value talent to Australia.
The initiatives announced by the Australian Government are the first shot in what I believe will be a fierce battle waged by a number of governments to attract global talent. The devastating impacts of COVID-19 on the global economy has magnified the need to attract the best and brightest entrepreneurial talent to drive growth and create employment.
Rather than immigration being a policy focus, governments are turning their policy attention to attracting and retaining talent. The Australian Government’s recently announced Global Talent Scheme is a good example of this policy shift.
It’s no coincidence that the measures announced by the Prime Minister on Hong Kong included reference to the role played by the Global Talent and Business Innovation and Investment Programs in attracting the best and brightest to Australia. Hong Kong is full of entrepreneurial talent which Australia, and many of our trading partners are feverishly trying to attract to its workforce.
Governments will look to develop a stronger policy linkage to certain visa categories to ensure that targeted and emerging skills are retained in order to deliver a greater return on the investment. This policy approach will help bridge the gap between filling skills shortages required by business now, and the time it will take for local institutions to deliver the necessary talent locally in the future.
For example, the Australian Government announcement included an initiative where Hong Kong students in Australia will be eligible for a five-year temporary graduate visa that enables them to remain and work after they complete their degrees.
The civil unrest in Hong Kong and the likely further tightening of laws impacting Hong Kong business and residents has a much bigger impact than many would have imagined for the Asia Pacific region.
Hong Kong has long been regarded as the financial services capital of Asia, with many global financial institutions basing their Asia Pacific headquarters there. Even though the global significance of Hong Kong as a financial services hub may have diminished with the emergence of regional financial centres such as Shanghai and Singapore, it remains an important regional talent hub.
Without doubt the financial services sector will be one of the big beneficiaries from the announcements by the Australian Government. There are already a number of global financial services firms which have a significant presence in Hong Kong and also have an established presence in Australia.
These firms are likely seriously weighing up their future investments of talent in Hong Kong given the current civil unrest. The announcement by the Australian Government will help those companies build their workforce plans to attract more of their existing Hong Kong based talent to Australia.
The civil disruption in Hong Kong has unnerved many of these institutions, and the economic impacts of COVID-19 has further impacted the capacity of these financial institutions to attract and retain critical talent.
The large Hong Kong diaspora in Australia coupled with our stable and highly regulated financial services environment affords a tremendous opportunity for Australia to attract its unfair share of financial services talent which chooses to remain in Australia or depart Hong Kong.
At this time very few of us have had much time to think and operate beyond the immediate challenges we face in our personal and professional lives from COVID-19. However, as we all adjust to living and working in the COVID-19 world, and we adjust to the new temporary way of working, attention will soon turn towards what the post pandemic world looks like.
The Australian Government has made a compelling case to global talent to choose our country to build their future. This is the first battle for talent in what will surely be a long and protracted conflict to win the war for talent 2.0.