Viewpoint: Developing IT skills internationally: who's developing whom?

I t is difficult to read anything about the global economy without being told how important IT skills will be in the future, and how the economy will suffer if we do not have enough people with these skills. This is particularly true in developing countries for a number of reasons: • The economic status of the country has an obvious correlation to what skills are available, and on education and training opportunities; • Hardware and software are typically imported from developed countries, and unfavorable currency exchange rates make computer systems relatively expensive; and • The importation of expatriate people skills is exor-bitantly expensive and increases developing coun-tries' reliance on developed countries. This means people with IT skills are far more precious in developing countries than in developed countries. But at the same time there is the phenomenon of skilled people moving from developing countries to developed countries, constituting a significant export of capital from poor to rich. This export takes place for several reasons, the most important being the economic opportunities rich countries offer highly skilled people. This may be inevitable, but it should be recognized that this is a subsidy of the rich by the poor, and the rich who are often self-satisfied about " aid " given to the poor, should not delude themselves that they are being charitable. For the last few years I have been responsible for liaising with companies wishing to recruit students graduating from the University of the Witwaterstrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Like other countries, South Africa has a large shortage of skills, and our graduates are in such high demand we increasingly find it difficult to keep students for postgraduate study. The university's mission of providing scientists and engineers for the country is a particularly important one as we believe we are a key resource for our country. I have been surprised by the number of foreign companies that try to recruit our graduates. Of course we are flattered; people from leading software companies are prepared to fly more than 10,000 miles from the other side of the world to employ our graduates. This says something about the quality of what we do. Recruiters are not only prepared to travel, they don't take a polite " no " for an answer. Once we say we won't cooperate, they go behind our backs and spam our students. Why are the biggest companies in …