January 17-2014
. . . copy China
Every year, about 150,000 highly talented people emigrate from Iran, and this is equivalent to an annual loss of $150 billion dollars for the country, Minister of Science, Research and Technology Reza Faraji-Dana said last Tuesday.
While the budget of the government is 1.95 quadrillion rials (about $65 billion), Iran gives $150 billion dollars or more than twice as much “in assistance to other countries” through this brain drain, Faraji-Dana said in a speech at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran.
According to estimates of the 1990s, the education and upbringing of each college graduate costs the country about $1 million, he said, explaining his calculation of the cost of the brain drain.
He said Iran is not opposed to the idea of students going abroad for academic studies, but Iran will suffer financially if these people do not return due to a lack of appealing conditions at home.
Faraji-Dana cited China as a good example since, he said, it has succeeded in luring its educated people back to the country.
By offering talented people wages three to four times above the average, China is convincing its talented people to return to the country, “but we are only monitoring the emigration of talented people from the country,” he said.
Faraji-Dana also complained of discrimination between talented people and sportsmen, with athletes receiving much greater financial rewards.
This discrimination between an athlete who has won a medal and a young person who has made a scientific invention cannot “remain concealed from the sharp eyes of talented people,” Faraji-Dana said.
Faraji-Dana’s ministry is the one that oversees higher education.
