ARAK, Markazi Province -- An Advisor to Oil Minister, Mohammadtaqi Amanpour, said here on Monday that the brain drain problem costs the country over 50 billion.

Speaking at a ceremony honoring provincial researchers, he added that the Science, Research and Technical Affairs Ministry reckons that over 145,000 people immigrate each year from Iran, of whom 105,000 are university graduates.

Given that each expert's training costs the country some U.S. $100,000 annually, the immigration of so many experts means wasting of U.S. $50 billion of the national scientific wealth, he said.

Although the state funding for research has increased, the share of the private sector's funds goring to research is close to nil, the Oil Ministry official added, IRNA reported.

Amanpour said following the victory of Islamic Revolution in 1979 many aspirations and lofty goals, including social justice, poverty alleviation and sustainable socioeconomic development, have not been written into law.

"If these goals do not become law any realistic evaluation of the results cannot be thoroughly assessed," he remarked.

Lack of delineating a comprehensive development strategy only exacerbates a unstable development process, he said. He said a non-oil economy does not entail closing down the Oil Ministry, but, "It incorporates a vibrant and self-sufficient economy."

We should process oil into goods and use our resources and God-given natural wealth to back up sustainable national development.

In a bid to stem the flow of Iranians going abroad, the Iranian Parliament recently approved a bill to let foreign colleges open branches in the country, as well as establish private universities for the first time since the Islamic Revolution.

According to the plan, "reputable" foreign universities can open branches in Iran which is faced with a mounting brain drain phenomenon with the country's youth seeking to accomplish their graduate and post graduate education overseas.

Foreign collegiate entities however have to operate in line with regulations of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research, the law says.

To become a full-blown law, the bill has to receive the green light of the Supervisory Guardians Council, which vets whether a law complies with the Islamic tenets as well as the constitution.

Iranian press regularly reports about an "unprecedented" rage among Iranian youth to quit the country in search of greener pastures.

According to unconfirmed press reports, over 90 percent of Iranians who win in world scientific contests are attracted by Western countries.

They have also cited officials as saying that more than 420,000 Iranian university graduates have left the country in recent years.

The Iranian population, estimated at 62 million, is one of the world's youngest, with 35 million people under the age of 20.

Hossein Loqmanian, an MP from the western Hamedan Province, said in May that the U.S. was benefiting the most from the migration of the Iranian intelligentsia and university graduates.

"The Iranian nation is making hefty expenses for the training and education of these migrants and their flight strikes a deadly blow on the country," he added.