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| Brain drain threatens long-term growth |
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Sunday, July 05, 2009
By Mansoor Ahmad
LAHORE: Hardly any country has suffered more from the brain drain than Pakistan. Nearly 3,500 graduates of medical colleges are jobless and most may go abroad.
Denmark Pakistan Chamber of Commerce (DPCC) Chairman and research economist Abid Ali Abid stated this while delivering a lecture on the impact of brain drain on Pakistan’s economy.
He said those who considered flight of highly skilled human resource as a source of remittances had failed to realise that absence of qualified doctors, engineers and scientists was playing havoc with long-term economic growth of the country. He said even low-skilled labour force should be nurtured to improve their skills who could play role in the economy.
He said endemic poverty during the British Raj paled when compared with the current poverty rate in Pakistan. “Highly skilled workforce, which is badly needed in Pakistan, is going abroad in search for jobs.”
Abid said the number of repining Pakistanis, who wished to settle abroad, was rising every year, contributing alarmingly to the growing crisis of brain drain. The migration of professionals to foreign countries such as the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand had increased considerably with young educated and skilled Pakistanis including doctors, IT experts, scientists and other professionals either had already gone or were planning to leave, he said.
“All economists agree that every doctor, who leaves a poor nation, leaves a hole that cannot be filled. That creates enormous problems for the source country and the educational and health leaders in the country who are attempting to provide healers.”
He said no nation could achieve long-term economic growth by exporting the human resource.
The DPCC chairman said according to estimates of the Pakistan Overseas Employment Corporation, around 36,000 professionals including doctors, engineers and teachers had migrated to other countries in the last 30 years. Interestingly, he said, the figure was only a small proportion of the actual migration since majority of emigrants did not register.
He said his research indicated that the number in recent years had increased to around 45,000.
Abid said though the danger of brain drain was apparent, a large part of the problem was that not enough opportunities were offered to the country’s highly skilled workforce for contribution and advancement.
“The number of educated unemployed is very high and salary levels for skilled workers (relative to unskilled workers) are often kept low by the governments to maintain an egalitarian income policy.”
He said though the salaries of highly skilled workforce in the developed world were 30 to 40 times higher than those in Pakistan, money was not the only reason for many who opted to go abroad. “Lack of respect of professionals is another reason.”
Citing an example, he said high-skilled software engineers were usually answerable to the bosses who had no knowledge of IT.
He suggested the government should impart on-job training to farmers, welders and plumbers in their profession so that they could increase productivity and ensure a progressively better future for themselves.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
