More meritocracy needed to stop brain drain, say economists
By Yow Hong Chieh
Malaysia Insider
Monday, 02 May 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — The Najib administration needs to ensure a greater degree of meritocracy in education and employment to tackle the fundamental causes of Malaysia’s brain drain problem, economists have said.
A World Bank report published last week warned that the ongoing exodus of professional Malaysians was likely to intensify in coming years and further erode the country’s already narrow skills base.
CIMB Investment Bank chief economist Lee Heng Guie said Talent Corp, set up by the government earlier this year to lure and retain skilled workers, should conduct a thorough study to determine the best way to stem the outflow before serving up incentives.
While expressing confidence that the government was serious about tackling the problem, he said the incentives on offer so far were “short term” and not comprehensive enough to address the Malaysian diaspora’s concerns about lack of meritocracy in education and employment.
Talent Corp announced on April 12 that Malaysian professionals working abroad who returned to Malaysia would only have to pay a 15 per cent flat income tax for five years under the Returning Experts Programme (REP).
“They really have to do a study on why Malaysians are going out and how to attract them back,” Lee told The Malaysian Insider.
“It’s better than ad hoc dishing out incentives hoping people will come.”
But he cautioned that it was still too early to tell how Malaysians targeted by Talent Corp would respond to the flat tax incentive.
“It will be interesting to see how many Malaysians actually come back to take advantage of this,” he said.
Jupiter Securities research head Pong Teng Siew said the lack of meritocracy in tertiary education remained one of the most glaring obstacles to retaining and nurturing local talent.
He said “broader objectives” set by the government has distorted educational opportunities for the best and brightest and chased away talented Malaysians to foreign shores, from which they were unlikely to return.
“As long as the emphasis remains on other objectives than academic excellence, then the brain drain will continue,” he said.
Pong warned that the brain drain meant Malaysia would face an “uphill climb” to attain high-income nation status as there were now fewer skilled individuals to lead the “technological advancement” of the nation.
He also pointed out that it was difficult for “even the best countries” to compete internationally even without the barriers and inefficiencies prevalent in Malaysia.
“Singapore was desperate enough to get ahead with casinos. This tells you how difficult it is to keep ahead,” he said.
According to the World Bank’s “Malaysia Economic Monitor: Brain Drain” report released yesterday, some one million Malaysians live and work abroad, mostly in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and Singapore.
The report shows that 54 per cent of the Malaysian diaspora resided in Singapore while 15 per cent went to Australia, 10 per cent to the US and 5 per cent to the UK.
Malaysians abroad have cited social injustice in Malaysia as well as better career prospects and higher wages overseas as the main reasons for leaving.
By Yow Hong Chieh
Malaysia Insider
Monday, 02 May 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — The Najib administration needs to ensure a greater degree of meritocracy in education and employment to tackle the fundamental causes of Malaysia’s brain drain problem, economists have said.
A World Bank report published last week warned that the ongoing exodus of professional Malaysians was likely to intensify in coming years and further erode the country’s already narrow skills base.
CIMB Investment Bank chief economist Lee Heng Guie said Talent Corp, set up by the government earlier this year to lure and retain skilled workers, should conduct a thorough study to determine the best way to stem the outflow before serving up incentives.
While expressing confidence that the government was serious about tackling the problem, he said the incentives on offer so far were “short term” and not comprehensive enough to address the Malaysian diaspora’s concerns about lack of meritocracy in education and employment.
Talent Corp announced on April 12 that Malaysian professionals working abroad who returned to Malaysia would only have to pay a 15 per cent flat income tax for five years under the Returning Experts Programme (REP).
“They really have to do a study on why Malaysians are going out and how to attract them back,” Lee told The Malaysian Insider.
“It’s better than ad hoc dishing out incentives hoping people will come.”
But he cautioned that it was still too early to tell how Malaysians targeted by Talent Corp would respond to the flat tax incentive.
“It will be interesting to see how many Malaysians actually come back to take advantage of this,” he said.
Jupiter Securities research head Pong Teng Siew said the lack of meritocracy in tertiary education remained one of the most glaring obstacles to retaining and nurturing local talent.
He said “broader objectives” set by the government has distorted educational opportunities for the best and brightest and chased away talented Malaysians to foreign shores, from which they were unlikely to return.
“As long as the emphasis remains on other objectives than academic excellence, then the brain drain will continue,” he said.
Pong warned that the brain drain meant Malaysia would face an “uphill climb” to attain high-income nation status as there were now fewer skilled individuals to lead the “technological advancement” of the nation.
He also pointed out that it was difficult for “even the best countries” to compete internationally even without the barriers and inefficiencies prevalent in Malaysia.
“Singapore was desperate enough to get ahead with casinos. This tells you how difficult it is to keep ahead,” he said.
According to the World Bank’s “Malaysia Economic Monitor: Brain Drain” report released yesterday, some one million Malaysians live and work abroad, mostly in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and Singapore.
The report shows that 54 per cent of the Malaysian diaspora resided in Singapore while 15 per cent went to Australia, 10 per cent to the US and 5 per cent to the UK.
Malaysians abroad have cited social injustice in Malaysia as well as better career prospects and higher wages overseas as the main reasons for leaving.
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