By The Numbers
Brain gain
THE first ever non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) conference ended on December 29 with a call to help the country become a middle-income state by 2021 with long-term contribution by the NRBs in the different fields of development. Around 1,400 Bangladeshi scholars, professionals and investors living across the world congregated in the city for a three-day conference to harness their skill and expertise in the country's development.
The NRB representatives said that a good number of Bangladeshi scholars and professionals are living in many developed countries and contributing extraordinary expertise to the development of those countries. Many of these scholars and professional want to enrich their homeland by contributing their expertise through direct or indirect involvement.
They urged the government to formulate a proper policy framework to identify the massive challenges and opportunities in the country, and to define a strategic vision and a roadmap to act accordingly. The NRB representatives also urged the government to take initiative for bringing back the scholars and professionals to the country for contributing towards its development, as has been done by India and Malaysia.
The conference, organised by the Scholars Bangladesh, brought together expatriate Bangladeshi scholars, professionals and community representatives engaged in specialised jobs in science and technology, IT, health, and education to find out ways and means to contribute to Bangladesh in trade, academic and technical expertise.
The organisers really deserve our heartfelt thanks for such an excellent patriotic work; better late than never. India organised its third NRI conference in 2005 and got enormous positive response from their NRIs.
It is, indeed, heartening that the NRBs, who have earned great eminence for their talents and scholastic pursuits abroad, have decided to help build a better Bangladesh. The country has experienced its most sweeping wave of "brain drain" in the past decades, as an inevitable outcome of the changing dynamics in the world. As a result, it is currently facing a serious dearth of talent in every field -- be it in the government or outside.
The developed countries are now selectively attracting the talented and skilled individuals of the developing countries, offering them lucrative salaries and legal status. In fact, the developed countries are snatching away more and more brains from the developing countries in order to satisfy their need of the technically skilled persons. They developing countries have to invest $50,000, on an average, in every university graduate, only to see the talented ones migrate to richer countries for fabulous jobs.
According to an Unctad study, when an Indian doctor migrated to US in 1970, his country lost $ 40,000, but the doctor contributed around $ 600,000 to the US economy. The study also revealed that 11,236 doctors and scientists who migrated to US from other countries in the 1970s, contributed $ 3.5 billion to the US economy. India alone loses two billion dollars a year because of migration of its IT experts to US.
The developed countries are conducting their research with the help of technically skilled people from the developing countries, which helps them to retain their standing as global leaders, evolving new systems and technology. On the other hand, developing countries are facing lower productivity in every sector because of decreased level of technical skill.
One may argue that the negative effects of brain drain are partially offset by the benefits of remittances that the expatriate Bangladeshis send home to their families. No doubt, such remittances contribute much to poverty reduction and, thereby, stimulate economic growth.
But there is more the tenable argument that the people who work in mid and lower level jobs abroad remit the earnings to their families living in Bangladesh, while the scholars and skilled individuals, who usually settle in the developed countries with their family, never feel any need to remit money to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has emerged as one of the top ten remittance receiving countries in the world, as the expatriates remitted $ 5.48 billion last year. A substantial amount of the remittances was from our labourers working in Malaysia and Middle-East countries rather than from the scholars and professionals.
We cannot, however, advocate for regulating the outflow of talent to developed countries because we cannot provide them with adequate working amenities and research facilities. But this is only one side of the story. Apart from these constraints, the fragile political condition of the country has also contributed much to the brain drain.
Politically motivated and dishonest recruitments have tainted the image of the bureaucracy as an institution. The 27th BCS examination was a glaring example. The government, however, cancelled the viva voce of the 27th BCS examination.
Political nepotism in recruiting and promoting unfit teachers, ignoring the brilliant ones, happens too often in the public universities. And that impels the frustrated young talented people to go abroad.
It is quite unreasonable to expect that the scholars and professionals engaged in fabulous jobs abroad will return home to serve their homeland, because of deep sense of patriotism, unless abundant endowments are offered. If they do not return, they can transfer the specialised skill achieved abroad in a bid to enlighten the next generation in Bangladesh, at least to repay the debt they owe to the poor country for grooming them with the basic education at the cost of public funds.
Brain drain has aggravated the bad situation, as many of the best people have left the country for higher pay and a better life. Certainly, it is the quality of human resources that decides the destiny of a nation. Unfortunately, our young generation is not adequately enough educated to shoulder that much responsibility. It is, therefore, the need of the hour for us to have a "brain gain" to reverse the brain drain.
India, Malaysia and China are now in the midst of a brain gain. Their non-resident scholars and professionals are now returning home in increasing numbers, and getting so many incentives and endowments. These countries have even set up special economic zones for investment by the expatriate experts. Why do we not follow them, as we have a full-fledged expatriate welfare ministry to look after the expatriate investments?
The second important task is to make the return of the NRBs less cumbersome by removing all bureaucratic obstacles and maintaining close ties with the diaspora. We really need to do these things, as we badly need the helps of the NRBs who can play a pivotal role in the transfer of technology, especially in the IT sector.
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