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PHL needs to address “brain drain” issue to raise productivity

Posted on March 11, 2015

By Kris M. Crismundo

MANILA, March 11 (PNA) — The Philippines is urged to address migration of its labors, particularly professionals, in order to improve the country’s labor productivity, the First Quarter 2015 Economic Insight Report of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) stated.

The Report noted that the brain drain in the country is depriving its labor pool, although the Philippine economy was partly compensated with remittances, while migrants’ productivity were gained by other economies, specifically developed countries.

“In terms of labor force, the Philippines is faced with a brain drain issue, which is depriving the labor pool of much of its greatest talent. This has been a problem for a while now, with the country having lost an estimated 10 percent of its population to work abroad, including many highly qualified professionals,” ICAEW economic advisor Charles Davis said.

ICAEWs report emphasized that in order for the country to grow its national output, either it will expand the size its labor force or raise labor’s productivity.

Figures provided by ICAEWs report showed that the Philippines had the slowest productivity growth among major ASEAN economies from 1991 to 2012.

“All the major ASEAN economies achieved faster productivity growth than the US between 1991 and 2012, with the exception of the Philippines,” it mentioned.

It cited that Vietnam, despite being the poorest compared to the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore exhibited highest productivity growth of 184 percent over a decade or growing by 5.0 percent annually.

Labor productivity growth of Thailand in the said period was at 85 percent, surpassing Malaysia’s and Singapore’s growth 81 and 80 percent, respectively.

ICAEW, on the other hand, said although the Philippines cannot compete with the Singaporean and United States wages, the country can still reverse the brain drain issue like what China and India did.

“As we have seen, in China and India for example, emigrants are willing to return to their home countries despite even wage cuts, so long as they are confident their sector of expertise exists. One key strategy will be to make sure that the Philippines’ high-tech industrial centers are integrated into relevant international networks; this means that people can return to their home nation without fearing that their career progression will suffer,” ICAEW Southeast Asia director Mark Billington said.

“Good infrastructure is also going to be vital. It allows clusters of new industries to develop, which is crucial to maximize the potential of sectors of the workforce that are already highly-educated and qualified, and encourages entrepreneurship. Other incentives, such as providing grants for the right new businesses, will also help,” added Billington.

Meanwhile, ICAEW is a leading professional membership organization that promotes, develops and supports over 144,000 chartered accountants worldwide.

ICAEW partners with Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd (Cebr) to produce the quarterly Economic Insight Report. (PNA)

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