INGENIEUR
promote adoption of best practices on standards
and qualifications.
Hence, PEEP can be considered as an initiative
to fulfil the above objective of promoting the flow
of relevant information and exchanging expertise.
Another initiative which was proposed by
Malaysia is the ASEAN Engineering Programme
Accreditation Council or Committee; however,
this has not been seriously discussed at ACPECC
Meetings as yet. This concept or idea can be
considered as an initiative to promote the adoption
of best practices for Qualifications. It should be
emphasised here that Singapore and Malaysia
are already full members of the Washington
Accord, which is an international agreement on
the accreditation of undergraduate engineering
programmes. Thailand is at the stage of applying
for the provisional membership, and indications
are that Thailand may be considered at the next
Washington Accord meeting.
The ideas of both the ASEAN Engineering
Programme Accreditation Council or Committee
and PEEP could be further developed through the
roundtable discussions or future ACPECC meetings
so as to ensure that all the ASEAN Member
Countries could participate and benefit from the
programmes. It is important that ACPECC and ACPEs
exchange ideas and thoughts on how to develop
further the ACPE and the understanding among the
ASEAN Countries on engineering services so that
mobility of professionals and the enhancement of
trade in services could be successfully attained.
It is important to realise that the final outcome
of all these efforts should be the acceleration of
economic growth, social progress and cultural
development within all Member Countries leading
to a prosperous and peaceful community of ASEAN.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MRAs
The Economic Ministers of ASEAN Member States
signed the ASEAN MRA on Engineering Services on
December 9, 2005 to realise the decision of the
Bali Concord II held in 2003 calling for completion
of MRAs for qualifications in major professional
services by 2008 to facilitate free movement of
professional, skilled labour and talents in ASEAN.
Consequently, ACPECC meetings were held
back to back with CCS meetings to discuss issues
relating to the notification of participation of the
Engineering MRA by the Professional Regulatory
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VOL 55 JUNE 2013
Authorities of all ASEAN Member States and the
implementation mechanism of the MRAs.
The ASEAN MRA was signed on December 9,
2005 but it took two and half years for the ACPECC
to have the first meeting, which was in 2008,
which was the year the MRA was anticipated to be
completed by the Bali Concord II Meeting.
It took six years and 25 ACPECC meetings
to arrive at where we are now and to finally
have all Member States register their Notice
of Participation and submit their Assessment
Statements and Monitoring Committees. And yet,
the Engineering MRA is considered to be the most
advanced amongst all the Professional MRAs
[Architecture, Land Surveying and Accountancy].
Currently, ACPECC has registered 794
engineers with Indonesia at 154, Malaysia at 199,
Singapore at 218, Vietnam at 113, Myanmar at
72 and Philippines at 38. Malaysia and Singapore
have worked out the mechanism to register
Registered Foreign Professional Engineer [RFPE].
Malaysia has recently registered four FRPEs from
Singapore. Other countries have not submitted
their mechanism to register their RFPEs.
The Engineering PRAs of some Member States
are also involved in other international engineering
alliances and mutual recognitions. This provides
an opportunity for ASEAN Member States to take
advantage of the ASEAN Engineering MRA and
to experiment with services trade liberalisation
and mobility amongst themselves first prior to
the inevitable liberalisation to other nations, but
this may be lost if the ASEAN MRA is not fully
implemented.
At other international Engineering Alliance
Meetings, such as the Washington Accord for
accreditation of engineering degrees, EMF and APEC
Engineers for the mutual recognition of engineering
professional qualifications, great strides have
been achieved through the formulation and
adoption of graduate attributes outcome, exemplar
standards and engineering competency.
Although currently, ASEAN Engineering MRA
calls for mutual recognition based on trust of the
various Member States Monitoring Committees,
in the final analysis, ACPECC must, I believe,
begin to discuss capacity and capability building
of our ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineers;
and within an acceptable time frame, to formulate
and implement higher standards both at University