Stop the brain drain

When an unprecedented currency crisis hit Asia and Korea in 1997, domestic businesses first trimmed their R&D manpower, as they were of little use in making quick profits. Kim Jong-hoon, a Korean-American IT expert nominated by President Park as her first minister of future planning and science, gave up the opportunity to serve his country amid a dispute over his dual nationality.

These episodes illustrate Korea’s low esteem and poor treatment of science-technology talents ― and explain why the nation’s future growth potential seems to be pitiably limited.

Backing up such gloomy prospects is a recent report by Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development. IMD gave ”brain drain index” of 4.63 to Korea, ranking it at 37th place out of 60 countries surveyed. On a scale of 0 to 10, the lower the index is, the more likely it is that scientists and engineers will leave their homeland.

The top five nations were Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and the United States, while the bottom five were Bulgaria, Venezuela, Hungary, Poland and Russia. As far as brain drain is concerned, Korea is closer to Eastern Europe or Latin America than Europe and America.

More than half of Korea’s best and brightest scientific and technological manpower want to leave or would not return home after studying abroad.

They cite poor research conditions, including low pay and insufficient financial support, as the biggest reasons. Next come the rather low social perception of the science-engineering professions, deeply rooted in the time-worn Confucian mentality. Also, Korea thinks ― wrongly ― that it is an advanced, services industry-led economy. Foreigners often wonder why there are so few scientists and technicians at high posts of the Korean government and the board rooms of large businesses.

Also problematic are students’ pursuit of careers associated with promises of making quick money and guaranteed social status, such as the legal profession. So much so that some engineering graduates of the nation’s most prestigious Seoul National University reenter law schools or even dental colleges of lesser, private universities.

Compare this with Japan, which decided in 2001 to produce 30 Nobel laureates in natural science within 50 years, and has achieved half of this target. It’s little wonder that Korea has none. Chinese leaders are going all out to bring their best talents back from the U.S. The American authorities are racking their brains to stem a reverse brain drain to China and India, but they may not have to worry about Korean students. All this leads to the dreary outlook that Asia’s fourth-largest economy will hardly be able to catch up with the top three.

Even more lamentable ― and incomprehensible ― is the “brain export” continues unabated although Korea is the world’s sixth-largest R&D spender, and the second-largest in its ratio against GDP. This indicates the need for the government to check whether it is wasting money on wrong programs.

A country that cannot keep its scientists and technicians at home has no future. The korea times