Ingenieur Vol 61 January-March 2015 | Page 25

of the ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer (ACPE). An ACPE is a “non-submitting person” professional engineer practicing in a cross-border host ASEAN Member States (AMS) as a Registered Foreign Professional Engineer (RFPE), either in consortium or JV with a host-domestic registered/ licensed professional engineer in practice, who is the Enterprise’s domestic Submitting Person. It is to be noted the MRA caters for “Engineering Services Professionals” (ESPs); and ACPE is only the starter grade for ESP ~ two other grades of ESPs to follow. First Generation MRA The MR A on Engineering Ser vices is in fact a First Generation (1 G) MR A; More of a “snap shot” of existing status quo of AMS that have their respective regulatory regime over the practice of “professional engineering services” offered by natural persons - registered/ licensed professional engineers in private practice; e.g. Malaysia’s Profession Regulatory Authority (PRA) on Engineering Services ~ the BEM; administrating the Registration of Engineers Act, 1967, but on the parts/sections/subsections relating to “Professional Engineer” only. Notwithstanding the fact that the MRA is a “do-able” First Generation MRA (i.e. 1-G MRA) to overcome inertia whereby all 10 AMS could buy in at the time of its conclusion. It has however taken a long time to realise this and just as long for actualising the MRA’s operation (nine years have lapsed). Why is there a delay in implementing the present (1-G) MRA on Engineering Services? Note: Delay in implementing the MRA represents missed opportunities for ASEAN CBTS suppliers/ providers who look forward to having related (and coherence in) domestic/ASEAN measures improved progressively; based on experience gained in the implementation of the MRA; even though it’s only a 1-G version. The expansion of scope & coverage of the MRA, and/or other sector specific MRAs could not be attempted otherwise. The answer is any or combination (even all) of the following: Protectionism/national safeguards akin to ●● NTM/NTB/discrimination; Absence of an appropriate domestic ●● ●● ●● ●● regulatory regime; Different levels/stages of engineering education development among AMS; Perceived exclusiveness rather than inclusiveness; or perhaps Continued inertia. Cross Border Trade in Services For Cross Border Trade in Services (CBTS ~ including engineering, architectural & construction services) to take place, there will have to be in place the following regulations/measures reciprocal to both trading nations/AMS, market access (MA), commercial presence (CP), and national treatment (NT). ASEAN Economic Community means Inclusiveness/non-discrimination For seamless cross border trade to take place in a Common Market and coupled with Borderless Production Base that in sum defines AEC, there should none or lowest possible limitation on MA, CP and NT. In short there should be inclusiveness and non-discrimination which means the ASEAN MRA on Engineering Services (for CPC 8672 only); if WA were the international best practice benchmark for the entry qualification for engineers to progress on to be ACPE, then those AMS which are non signatories of the WA will feel threatened. This will lead to the preservation of “exclusiveness” among developed AMS that would appear to benefit from the MRA at the expense of other lesser developed AMS. This perception of exclusiveness does not encourage seamless trade. Only win-win positions on a “level playing field” will enco