The Lebanese economy has suffered $30 billion in losses over the past 25 years due to the “brain drain” phenomenon, said Professor Anis Abi Farah from Beirut’s Université Libanaise to An Nahar.
Brain drain refers to the emigration of highly educated workers from developing countries to developed countries. According to Farah, Lebanon’s population totaled 3.472 million in 2001 and the number of Lebanese living abroad totaled 9.45 million during the same year.
According to the Arab Human Development Report 2003, excessive oil dependence and the accelerating emigration of educated professionals is having a damaging impact on the Arab World’s knowledge base. Oil dependency encourages spending and acquisition, providing little incentive to stimulate local investment and production.
Major factors for brain drain in developing countries are lack of employment opportunities, salary differentials, disparity between professional competence acquired through education, job dissatisfaction, cumbersome employment procedures and abrasive institutional settings.
This ever-persistent trend has deprived developing countries of the expertise of thousands of their most talented people at a time when their skills are desperately needed. This phenomenon reduces the quantity and quality of human capital available to countries working towards sustainable development. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
