Anti brain-drain policies not working
Many of the moves designed to bring Malaysians back aren't working, a report said.
PETALING JAYA: Policies aimed at bringing overseas Malaysians back home are not working, an anti-brain drain group said.
According to a report by Wake Up Call Malaysia (WUC-M), many incentives including the introduction of tax breaks and turning the country into a high-income nation were not enough.
Talent Corp’s programmes were also criticised in the report, which the group described as “a challenge” for returning Malaysians.
“(Critieria by these programmes) included returnees having to have a minimum amount of years of work experience overseas before returning.
“The lower (their) education level, the longer a Malaysian (would) have to work overseas to benefit from the incentives given out by the government.
“By then, Malaysians would have settled down overseas and (would be) reluctant to environment and lifestyle (changes),” the report said.
Talent Corp’s Retain Expert Programme, it said, also lacked promotion and publicity.
The report was also accompanied by a survey involving 518 Malaysians, many of whom were currently overseas.
According to them, many of the survey’s respondents did not know about Talent Corp’s programmes, particularly its Retain Expert Programme.
WUC-M also deemed tax breaks for returnees as a temporary solution, as it would not attract people who had enough money to go abroad in the first place.
The Public Service Department’s (PSD) Overseas Degree Programme (PILN) was also criticised.
“The follow-up programme seems ineffective as not all the scholars are ‘tracked’ to get them back. Many scholars were not granted the chance to serve out their bond and (were) released from the contract… a waste of public money spent on the education sector,” it said.
‘Uncertain’ education system
WUC-M also pointed out the gradual increase of people’s incomes parallel to taxes and inflation, warning that it would result in “unreasonable earning power versus expenditure”.
The group also noted the many “ineffective” policies by the Malaysian government, including the “uncertain” national education system (switching from English to Bahasa Malaysia), discriminatory economic policies, preferential race treatment and the continuation of the New Economic Policy (NEP).
WUC-M then proposed a number of solutions to bring Malaysians back home. These included:
- improving local tertiary education to meet international standards;
- recognition of overseas qualifications;
- simplifying the process where foreign spouses and children were nationalised;
- putting PSD scholars in fields where they had studied for;
- dual or diaspora citizenships;
- promotion of meritocracy, transparency and social equality; and
- improving political stability, reducing crime, etc.
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