prijava
SARAJEVO, June 12 (FENA) - Bosnia and Herzegovina loses 1.5 billion euros annually due to young people leaving the country. This is one of the key conclusions of the study "Cost of Youth Emigration from BiH", conducted by the Institute for Development and Innovation with the support of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy in BiH, in a project supported by the UK Government.
This first study on this topic was conducted on the basis of publicly available demographic statistics, education statistics and macroeconomic data.
The study was presented online today by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy in BiH.
Based on these parameters, the study provides answers to three questions: what is the average cost of education of a highly educated person, what is the opportunity cost in terms of loss of potential GDP generated by annual emigration and what are the positive effects of migration on the economy.
According to the data provided during today's online presentation by the team leader in the study, Nenad Jevtović from the Institute for Development and Innovation, most people from Bosnia and Herzegovina go to Germany, then to Slovenia and Austria, while the departures from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens to other countries is significantly smaller.
The study summary states that the total cost of education for people leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina in one year, depending on the educational structure, varies from 650 million to just over 800 million euros.
“The obtained results show that, both directly and indirectly, due to the impossibility of preventing the annual outflow of population, an annual loss of potential GDP amounts to 710 million euros.
With the departure of 'finished' professionals from their home country, the costs of their education are "donated" to other countries.
The presented study also deals with the benefits for Bosnia and Herzegovina based on the departure of its people, i.e., remittances to the home country, which are very significant.
However, it has shown that there are also positive effects on the national economy due to emigration. The most important direct benefits of migration flows are remittances, and the contribution of remittances and other personal transfers to GDP which amount to 8 percent, making Bosnia and Herzegovina at the very top in Europe when it comes to the contribution rate of these transfers to GDP.
If we look at other sources of income coming from abroad (social income and temporary worker income), the contribution to GDP exceeds 14 percent and reaches almost 2.5 billion euros annually.
This size of remittances in GDP simultaneously indicates their high value and low GDP, i.e., underdeveloped economy and insufficient economic activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to Jevtović, not enough money from remittances ends up in investments in the country, while a large part is invested in consumption and real estate, i.e., living expenses and real estate for the family members.
“The allocation of transferred funds (around 2.5 billion per year) imposes the conclusion that they play an important role in the national economy, but cannot be seen as a generator of future development or additional growth until the investment component becomes significantly stronger,” it is said in the study.
One of the conclusions is that the continuation of the emigration trend will bring a number of socio-economic problems in the future, some of which are already noticeable - pressure on pension funds and health and social services, reduction of potential GDP growth due to several factors.
“Absence of human capital, in the not so distant future, can greatly determine the economic destiny of the country, the living standard of the population,” says the study, with the remark that people who leave, take with them, in addition to knowledge and experience, not a small value of funds invested in their education.
During today's presentation, one of the participants on the online event, the British Ambassador of BiH to BiH Matt Field, concluded in his introductory address that the exodus of young talents from BiH has an unequivocal economic price.
(FENA) S. R.
