By DAVID ADUDA

Developing countries are losing billions of dollars due to a brain drain to rich nations.

India, for instance, loses about 100,000 professionals to the US every year. Most of these are in the computer industry, which a developing nation like India vitally needs. In monetary terms, the nation loses upwards of $2 billion a year.

Many university graduates move to the North, where they are assured of well-paying jobs and ambient working environment. These are the same professionals who take longer time and more money to train and who are needed to provide the expertise to develop their countries.

Drawing examples from India, the report says it takes between $15,000 and $20,000 (Sh1.2 million to Sh1.5 million) to train a professional at the university level. In Kenya, where university education is heavily Government-subsidised, it costs about Sh480,000 to train a student for four years.

Training a doctor at the market rate costs about Sh500,000 a year, or Sh3 million in six years. Other affected professions are in information and communication technology, medicine and engineering.

Universities and research institutions are among those which have suffered an exodus of staff.

Although the report talks in global terms, the impact is felt most when brain drain is discussed at a country level. For instance, many professionals have fled Kenya due to poor economy, job cuts, unfair terms of service and political intolerance.

Many of these, including doctors, engineers and academicians, have taken up appointments in southern African countries and in the US, where they are paid up to five times more. It is estimated that public universities have lost more than 100 lecturers in the past five years due to an unattractive working environment characterised by intimidation, unclear promotion systems and poor pay.

At Kenyatta University, more than 20 dons have left in the past three years. Many others left to pursue other occupations locally. But the report says governments can gain from these emigrations by putting in place structures to tap the benefits that professionals get out there. One way is to negotiate bilateral tax treaties, where individuals are taxed on the basis of nationality, not residence, and part of the tax remitted to the home country.