A Knowledge-Based Economy for Preventing the Human Capital Flight

We wish to acknowledge that the source of inspiration for this article was a recent presentation by Professor Atta- ur- Rahman – one of the most decorated scientists and scholars in the field of organic chemistry from Pakistan, who was made the Guest-of-Honour at the National Workshop on Investigating Bioactive Molecules from Natural Sources, held at the National Institute of Fundamental Studies ( NIFS) in Kandy in October 2014. Prof Rahman has won four civil awards by successive governments including the highest national Civil Award of Nishan-iImtiaz. He is also the only scientist from the Muslim world to have been conferred the UNESCO Science Prize in 1999. Prof. Atta- ur- Rahman was conferred the Third World Academy of Science ( TWAS) Prize for Institution Building in Durban, South Africa in October 2009 in recognition of his contributions for bringing about revolutionary changes in the higher education sector in Pakistan. He then proceeded to use the money in addition to funds from his private finances to establish a research center on Genomics in Karachi University named after his father Jamil-ur-Rahman, and to start a TWAS Prize in Chemistry for deserving young researchers from developing countries that has been instituted by TWAS, The World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, Italy. His substantial contribution towards the development of education, science and technology in Pakistan as the Federal Minister for Science and Technology ( 14 March 2000 – 20 November 2002), Federal Minister of Education ( 2002) and Chairman of the Higher Education Commission with the status of a Federal Minister from 2002- 2008as well as his initiatives which bore fruits in a knowl- edge-based economy are truly aspiring for a country such as Sri Lanka, whose capabilities and intellectual capital can be further utilized. With over 947 publications in the field of his expertise including 135 books largely published by leading publishers in Europe and USA and 35 patents, he is also credited for reviving the higher education and research practices in Pakistan. Exploring and sustaining a country’s intellectual capital to generate its maximum output is one of the key reasons behind the exponential socio- economic development of many of the newly emerging economies.

During his presentation at the said event, Professor Rahman correctly pointed out that we live in a world where knowledge is the key to socioeconomic development. A knowledgebased economy which consists of skilled scientists and technicians has been known to play an important role in helping a country reach new heights of development. As seen in examples of Singapore, Korea and Taiwan, natural resources have not been a primary factor in the development of these countries. Singapore, for instance, does not possess any natural resources of sizeable amounts. The only resource it contains is its small population of about 5 million hardworking, qualified individuals who are dedicated service providers. Singapore has lavishly invested in a high quality education to ensure a skilled work-force. This is considered as one of the primary reasons behind the attraction of foreign investments into the country. Once the skilled work- force was made available, Singapore was able to undertake large- scale manufacturing and exports of high-technology products. For the past three decades as well as to date, the thrust of the country is to create world- class universities and centers of excellence which are capable of supplying the manpower needed for these industries. As a result of these initiatives, Singapore was recently able to ascertain its rightful place in academia with the National University of Singapore – a fullfledged knowledge enterprise, being placed within the first 25 universities in the world in Thomson-Reuters as well as QS rankings. Professor Rahman was able to provide examples from Pakistan on how the quality of human resources has become the single-most important factor for its transformation into a knowledgebased economy, when the Higher Education Commission was set up in October 2002 with the objective of changing the landscape of higher education. By 2008, within a short period of six years, several of Pakistan’s universities were ranked among the top 400 of the world. The main criteria for these elevated rankings were the increase in the number of international citations of the research carried out in the universities, the improvement in the quality of journals in which the university- based research was published, increase in international patents, a higher Ph. D output of students, a higher Ph.D level faculty to student ratio and a higher receipt of international honours and awards – to name but a few.One aspect which requires urgent attention when developing a knowledge-based economy is curbing the ‘ brain drain’. ‘ Brain drain’ or human capital flight as referred to in Economics is the emigration of educated individuals in search of ‘greener pastures’ – an action which is typically determined by better pay and quality of life. The resulting consequence is the place that they originally came from to lose a skilled workforce. Distinctive policies have been brought forward by various countries to retain skilled workers depending on their national needs as well as to reintegrate returnees. For the latter, psychological as well as economic aspects need to be taken into account. A recent paper by the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (http:// www. i p s . l k / t a l k i n g e c o n o m - ics/ 2014/ 09/ 25/ sri- lanka- can- gainmore- from- migration- by- helpingreturnees- reintegrate- better/), has stated that only 21% of returnee migrants have improved their economic situation, while only 6% of returnee migrants have improved their productive assets. In the same study, it was highlighted that only 47% are currently employed, only 26% successfully reintegrated with their immediate families, and only 5% successfully reintegrated with their extended families. Although these statistics are broad- based, they are able to aptly reveal that the country is in need of reinforcing reintegration strategies in order to prevent these returnees from further relocation in search of the ‘greener pastures’.