Monday, February 6 2006 11:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Manila: President A P J Abdul Kalam today (Feb 6, 2006) sought to dispel fear about the impact of brain drain on developing countries like India and Philippines, saying if a certain percentage of population goes abroad to acquire knowledge there is nothing to lose.

Replying to a question at an interactive session with students of the Philippines Science High School here, he said a sizeable percentage rpt a sizeable percentage of the total 85 million population of Philippines is working abroad while in India ten million out of the nearly one billion people are out.

"If a certain percentage of people go abroad to acquire knowledge, our countries do not stand to lose much," he said.

However, if developing countries like India and Philippines develop their own Research and Development facilities, those who have gone abroad will return as well as foreign scientists will be atracted to these facilities, the President stressed.