GENEVA - China is making steady progress thanks to higher spending in education and the country's vast talent pool, with a three-place increase in the 2024 World Talent Ranking, an expert from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) has said.

The 2024 World Talent Ranking report, released by the IMD on Sept 19, combines survey data from the IMD's World Competitiveness Center (WCC) with external sources and sets both in the context of findings from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

China increased by three positions in the ranking this year, from 41st to 38th place, said Professor Arturo Bris, director of IMD's WCC.

"The strength of China lies in the country's ability to tap the talent that they need. The country is so big, and the talent pool is so large that they find the skills that they are looking for," Bris told Xinhua in a virtual interview.

"China needs to employ a lot of people ... China has the ability to invest in education. This is what we call internal development, and here you see significant improvement," he added.

"This year is an important year because of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and technology on jobs, on talent, and on the competitiveness of countries," Bris said.

"We need to realize that there are two different forces. The first force is that AI is going to replace jobs and eliminate certain tasks. This can be detrimental to the competitiveness of countries," he said.

"But on the other hand, AI is going to make countries more productive and competitive. The result of this technology will be going in one direction or the other," Bris said.

He added that the most developed economies will suffer the most from jobs being replaced by AI as "5 percent of jobs in developed economies are in danger, while only 0.6 percent of jobs in developing economies are in danger."

The report also emphasized how much AI is seen to enhance tasks in different economies, the likelihood of men's versus women's employment to be affected by automation, and how talent competitiveness requires a reassessment of educational systems and corporate training programs.

"For countries to be talent-competitive, governments need to take a very important stance on their education systems," Bris said, stressing the need to make sure that education systems incorporate technology and AI into the skills of both students and employees.