LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) Thursday called to take the issue of brain drain seriously as it is not just an issue of people shifting but it actually a heavy loss of technically skilled and intellectual human resources to the country.
Removal of the brain drain is one of the biggest key to make the country economically stable. In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad, Senior Vice President Almas Hyder and Vice President Nasir Saeed said that it should be a matter of concern that migration rate of skilled manpower increased by more than 60% since 1990 and situation is growing worsen. They said that a developing country like Pakistan cannot afford continue to lose skilled human resources that can turn the economy around but leaving the country for good opportunities.
They said that government should tackle those issues on priority which are forcing skilled manpower to migrate to the other destinations. They said that lack of justice and resources, unemployment and growing population are some of the main reasons that are giving rise to the brain drain in Pakistan. They said that less financial and academic reasons, financial worries, political instability, lack of good health
& education facilities and lack of higher educational centers are giving rise to the brain drain in Pakistan.
They said that according to some surveys, more than two third of country’s youth population wants to go abroad for work while at least 50 percent of them have no desire to return to the motherland. They said that this trend means that Pakistan is losing out on more and more of its skilled human capital at present than ever before.
The LCCI office-bearers said that to stop brain drain, government should provide people better job opportunities. People should be promoted on merit alone, should be provided attractive salaries to highly qualified people on the basis of their experience. They said that government should also improve the quality of universities and bring them at par with universities in Europe and America. They said that students should be provided adequate research facilities and get rid of quota system at once if not done till now. The LCCI office-bearers said that government should also launch some effective programs to combat the issue of brain drain in Pakistan.
