Mexico City, Mexico – The federal government’s efforts to stop Mexico’s "brain drain" have received guarded praise from the country’s most important workers’ organizations, who added that the private sector and social organizations should also do their part.

According to a report issued by the National Council of Science and Technology, or Conacyt, almost 130,000 Mexican scientists left the country last year to work overseas.

Isaías González Cuevas, leader of the Revolutionary Federation of Workers and Campesinos, said the brain drain costs Mexico $70 million each year as a result of the cost of training workers whose labor goes offshore.

As the demand for highly trained professionals increases around the world, González Cuevas said that many of Mexico’s specialized scientists leave the country to look for better-paid jobs abroad and never return.

Mexican Workers Confederation Secretary Fernando Salgado said that the 2013 federal budget earmarks over $5.5 billion on science and technology research, which he says represents a 15 percent increase over 2012. Salgado added that President Enrique Peña Nieto also announced that his administration will also spend $76 million on expanding enrollment at Mexico’s technical colleges and spend another $200 million on new technology development.

Unfortunately, the actions taken by the government are not enough to improve job opportunities for trained professionals, National Workers’ Union President Agustín Rodríguez Fuentes said.

Rodríguez Fuentes said that college-age Mexicans regularly leave the country due to violence, drug trafficking and kidnapping, poverty, low salaries, unemployment, and inequality, among other reasons.

He added that the search for specialization was considered as a factor in the brain drain, but professionals may return to Mexico if they see signs of economic development at home

Interviewed separately, the three union leaders agreed that without the participation of the private sector and civil society, the government can’t reverse the brain drain.

They added that businesses and non-governmental organizations should provide more and better opportunities to Mexican scientists and professionals.