Beijing, December 16:

Brain drains rob developing countries of valuable human talent, as their best and brightest people go abroad to study and opt to stay in the developed world. For many years, the People’s Republic of China has been no exception to this phenomenon.

In recent years, however, tens of thousand of people trained abroad have been returning to China, an ILO article sta-tes. Close to a quarter of the more than 930,000 st-udents who went abroad for studies between 1978 and 2005 returned. And the numbers of returnees are growing: from about 6,000 in 1995 to almost 35,000 in 2005, according to China Statistical Yearbook 2006. The trend is so prevalent that the Chinese have even coined a term to refer to the returnees - hai gui, or ‘sea turtles’ returning to the shores they left to grow up in the sea.

“China is experiencing significant return migration brought on by political stability, improved housing, better business opportunities, more modern equipment and management procedures, higher salaries and other special incentives,” says Da-vid Zweig, director of the Centre on China’s Transnational Relations at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and author of article.

Government policies and inter-city competition for foreign-trained scientists and academics have created a positive atmosphere that encourages returnees, while competition among universities, research laboratories and enterprises has given them excellent incentives.

According to the article, market forces, supported by national government reforms, are the single most important factor bringing people back in the private sector, as tremendous opportunities and rewards await those who have learned a valuable skill or used advanced technologies overseas.

“Also, China has created an environment conducive to FDI which has attracted many MNCs, creating excellent jobs for expatriates who wish to return” explains Zweig.