China should beef up its development of talent, education and technology to improve the nation's competitiveness, a report released by a national think tank in Beijing Monday stated.

Although the country ranked first in terms of the size of its talent pool due to its huge population, the nation ranked 18th - for the fifth consecutive year - for the quality of its human resource pool, according to a report on the national competitiveness standing of China released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Monday.

The index's ranking for high-caliber talent in China is only one 12th that of the US and one 10th that of Japan, the report said. The human resource quality index is a gauge of human resource strength, and represents the percentage of skilled professionals in the marketplace, such as engineers and scientists.

In the technology ranking, the report said that China only has 61 prestigious research organizations, compared with 329 in the US, and the technology index is only one third that of the US, adding China still lacks world-class universities.

"The nation's core competitiveness is not in line with its status as a leading power, and it still lags behind other developed countries," said Ni Pengfei, lead professor from the Center for City and Competitiveness at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Moreover, the report said the country's competitiveness in terms of efficiency, structure, development potential and innovation, has risen from 73 to 17 among 100 countries between 1990 and 2008, but the competitiveness rating has dipped.

The decline is mainly attributed to the fact that the nation is hard pressed to find a new target for economic growth, the report said.

In the second quarter of this year, China surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest economy as GDP reached $1.34 trillion, compared with Japan's $1.29 trillion.

In the newly concluded five-year plan from the government, the country's comprehensive national power, international competitiveness and ability to shield against risks were cited as needing strengthening in the goals set for the 2011 to 2015 period.