Brain drain can be brain gain for source countries: UN
Apr 16, 2008 - 3:53:22 PM
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As doctors, nurses and medical specialists continue to leave African, Asian and Caribbean countries, the health services they leave behind become depressed and inadequate, especially in Africa, which is already suffering the toll of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases that kill and impair economic development.
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By IANS,
[RxPG] New York, April 16 - The so-called brain drain of migrants taking their skills and initiative to their new countries of residence can also drive growth in their homelands, according to a study by the United Nations University.
As doctors, nurses and medical specialists continue to leave African, Asian and Caribbean countries, the health services they leave behind become depressed and inadequate, especially in Africa, which is already suffering the toll of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases that kill and impair economic development.
Several successful Indians and Taiwanese in the high-tech industry in the US also set up hardware and software companies in their home countries, contributing to growth, said the study released Tuesday.
'The idea that the mobility of bright, qualified people represents a permanent loss of scarce human capital for the source country is becoming rapidly outdated,' said Andres Solimano, director of the study, Mobilising Talent for Global Developments.
'Talent mobility can bring benefits both to host and source countries.'
Other positive examples include a successful mobile telephone company founded by a Bolivian entrepreneur in the US, which has already opened several plants in Latin American capitals.
But in the health sector emigration hurts source countries, cautioned the study conducted by the UN University's World Institute for Development Economics Research.
The study recommended that countries that are losing talent should set up more liberal and open regimes that create a positive climate for business and the well-educated, leading to an improvement in the economy and society at large.
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