30 June
RTS March 27, 2019 AUTHOR: NIKOLINA RAKIĆ
The research of the Institute for Development and Innovation showed that the departure of young people abroad costs Serbia up to two billion euros a year. The most direct loss is measured by the funds invested in their education.
The education of one doctor costs around 55,000 euros. Four-year studies cost 30,000 euros, and high school education cost 10,000 less.
“If we multiply all these results that we got individually with some average number of people leaving Serbia, we would come to the result that, based on the loss we have from investing in education, Serbia loses between 0.3 and 1.2 billion euros.” , States the director of the Institute for Development and Innovation Nenad Jevtović. Illustrating how large that amount is, Jevtović states that the export of information and communication services in 2018 in Serbia amounted to 1.1 billion.
The exact number of those who leave are not known, but the OECD and the UN estimate that up to 49,000 people leave our country every year.
“It is obvious that GDP growth in recent years, the constant inflow of remittances from abroad, export growth, inflow of foreign direct investment and all other results of the current government require a systematic approach to migration of all categories of population, especially young people an extraordinary start “, states the advisor to the President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Miroslav Miletić.
Countries in the region, such as Bulgaria, are also struggling with the problem of young people leaving and Croatia. It used to go to the Baltic countries as well.
“What has Finland done? A complete change of education towards the IT world. And now we have Skype and we still don’t experience Finland that way. Ireland is a great example, Ireland based its economic boom on the third generation from the motherland that returned to Ireland,” Mladen points out. Stamenkovic from the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade.
The Deputy Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Serbia, Tracy Gallagher, says that Western countries where young people go benefit from such migration flows. “We are grateful to young people for developing our economy. At the same time, there are many Britons who are motivated by professional or personal reasons to move abroad. One institution cannot solve the problem on its own. Employment policy and incentives to return are part of the solution,” Tracy said. Gallagher.
Our country also benefits from the departure of young people – remittances that come to us from abroad, according to which we are at the top of European countries.
