Skopje, 22 October 2024 (MIA) - The country's emigration situation is so bad that according to the International Organization for Migration, we are among the top 20 countries in the world in terms of migration, said Auditor General Maksim Acevski during the presentation of the final audit performance report titled "Effectiveness of measures for preventing the outflow of higher education and expert staff" by the State Audit Office on Tuesday.

"Every country, including our own, needs to make sure that its highly educated workforce generates policies and measures that will reduce immigration. We should not feed the illusion that we can stop migration, because migration is a process not only for our country but for all others, including EU countries. According to the 2020 World Bank Report, nearly 40 percent of highly educated workforce in the country has emigrated. And according to the Human flight and brain drain index, our country is ranked fifth out of 41 countries in the EU," Acevski noted.

According to him, data indicated that basically all measures and activities that should have been undertaken during the period under review are not producing the expected results in terms of preventing the outflow of highly educated and skilled personnel, i.e. the outflow of human resources who essentially represent the country's real capital.

Collected data from the research suggests that over a period of nine years, the total cost invested in the outflow of these highly educated workforce will amount to EUR 725 million, or a negative effect of 8.34 percent of the GDP. ssh/ik/

MIA file photo, screenshot