The dot.com crash deflated this tsunami - but only temporarily. US venture capitalists still invest four times average of their brethren elsewhere - c. 0.5 percent of GDP. This translates to an average investment per start up ten times larger than average investment outside America.

American investors also power VC industry in UK, Israel, and Japan. A Deloitte Touche survey conducted last month (and reported in Financial Times) shows that a whopping 89 percent of all venture capitalists predict an increase in value of their investments and in their exit valuations in next 6 months.

Entrepreneurs in USA still face many obstacles - from insufficient infrastructure to severe shortages in skilled manpower. The July 2001 report of National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) said that less than 5 percent of American firms that existed in 1991 grew their employment by 15 percent annually since, or doubled their employment in feverish markets of 1992-7. But report found high growth companies virtually everywhere - and most of them were not "hi-tech" either. Start-ups capitalized on economic strengths of each of 394 regions of USA.

As opposed to stodgy countries of EU, many post-communist countries in transition (e.g., Russia, Estonia) have chosen to emulate American model of job creation and economic growth through formation of new businesses. International financial institutions - such as EBRD and World Bank - provided credit lines dedicated to small and medium enterprises in these countries. As opposed to USA, entrepreneurship has spread among all segments of population in Central and Eastern Europe.

In a paper, prepared for USAID by IRIS Centre in University of Maryland, authors note surprising participation of women - they own more than 40% of all businesses established between 1990-7 in Hungary and 38% of all businesses in Poland.

Virtually all governments, east and west, support their "small business" or "small and medium enterprises" sector.

The USA's Small Business Administration had its loan guarantee authority cut by half - yet to a still enviable $5 billion in FY 2003. But other departments have picked up slack.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) beefed up its Rural Business-Cooperative Service. The Economic Development Administration (EDA) supports "economically-distressed areas, regions, and communities". The International Trade Administration (ITA) helps exporters - as do OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation), US Commercial Service, Department of Commerce (mainly through its Technology Administration), Minority Business Development Agency, US Department of Treasury, and a myriad other organizations - governmental, non-governmental, and private sector.

Another key player is academe. New proposed bipartisan legislation will earmark $20 million to encourage universities to set up business incubators. Research institutes all over world - from Israel to UK - work closely with start-ups and entrepreneurs to develop new products and license them. They often spawn joint ventures with commercial enterprises or spin-off their own firms to exploit technologies developed by their scientists.

MIT's Technology Licensing Office processes two inventions a day and files 3-5 patent applications a week. Since 1988, it started 100 new companies. It works closely with Cambridge Entrepreneurship Center (UK), Asian Entrepreneurship Development Center (Taiwan), Turkish Venture Capital Association, and other institutions in Japan, Israel, Canada, and Latin America.

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Thailand established in 1997, within National Science and Technology Development Agency, a 2.2 billion baht project called "Reverse Brain Drain". Its aim is to "use 'brain' and 'connections' of Thai professionals living overseas to help in Development of Thailand, particularly in science and technology."

The OECD ("International Mobility of Highly Skilled") believes that:

"More and more highly skilled workers are moving abroad for jobs, encouraging innovation to circulate and helping to boost economic growth around globe."

But it admits that a "greater co-operation between sending and receiving countries is needed to ensure a fair distribution of benefits".

The OECD noted, in its "Annual Trends in International Migration, 2001" that (to quote its press release):

"Migration involving qualified and highly qualified workers rose sharply between 1999 and 2000, helped by better employment prospects and easing of entry conditions. Instead of granting initial temporary work permits only for one year, as in past, some OECD countries, particularly in Europe, have been issuing them for up to five years and generally making them renewable. Countries such as Australia and Canada, where migration policies were mainly aimed at permanent settlers, are also now favoring temporary work permits valid for between three and six years ... In addition to a general increase in economic prosperity, one of main factors behind recent increase in worker migration has been development of information technology, a sector where in 2000 there was a shortage of around 850,000 technicians in US and nearly 2 million in Europe..."

But OECD underplays importance of brain drain:

"Fears of a "brain drain" from developing to technologically advanced countries may be exaggerated, given that many professionals do eventually return to their country of origin. To avoid loss of highly qualified workers, however, developing countries need to build their own innovation and research facilities ... China, for example, has recently launched a program aimed at developing 100 selected universities into world-class research centers. Another way to ensure return ... could be to encourage students to study abroad while making study grants conditional on student's return home."

The key to a pacific and prosperous future lies in a multilateral agreement between brain-exporting, brain-importing, and transit countries. Such an agreement should facilitate sharing of benefits accruing from migration and "brain exchange" among host countries, countries of origin, and transit countries. In absence of such a legal instrument, resentment among poorer nations is likely to grow even as mushrooming needs of richer nations lead them to snatch more and more brains from their already woefully depleted sources.