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II. The Role of Mutual Recognition Arrangements in the ASEAN Economic Community: Ambitions and Expectations

The negotiation and conclusion of MRAs are always complex and require a tremendous amount of time and resources for all involved parties. Despite this knowledge, ASEAN Member States agreed to embark on such a course, knowing full well the critical role MRAs could play in strengthening the AEC, as this section discusses.

A. THE ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY’S GRAND AMBITIONS

Established in 1967 at the height of the Viet Nam War, the ASEAN bloc will enter its fifth decade a markedly different region. With more than 600 million consumers, Southeast Asia is a vibrant market with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of nearly $3 trillion. The region represents the seventh largest economy in the world and is widely predicted to be the fourth largest by 2050.⁴

For many observers, the creation of the AEC signaled an ambitious move towards fulfilling the vision of ASEAN as the new Asian power bloc. Indeed, a recent study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Labour Organization (ILO) suggests that closer integration under the AEC could increase production in the region by as much as 7% and generate around 14 million additional jobs by 2025. Countries in the region could see significant productivity gains, allowing them to compete in global markets on the basis of this increased productivity rather than on lower labor costs.⁵

These developments, however, can only be achieved through much greater emphasis on regionwide skill development. Currently, skills shortages and mismatches are acute concerns for businesses and governments in the ASEAN region, and are only projected to grow worse in the coming decade. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has noted that scarcity of qualified workers has caused significant issues for employers in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam.⁶ Indeed, a vast majority of the companies recently surveyed in the ASEAN region highlighted severe issues with attracting and retaining talent; the McKinsey Group, in a report on Indonesia and Myanmar, projects an undersupply of 9 million skilled and 13 million semiskilled workers by 2030,⁷ while Grant Thornton highlights that 61% of business leaders in Singapore have difficulty hiring the skilled workers they need.⁸

B. GREAT EXPECTATIONS

If fully implemented, the MRAs could help address the widening skills gap in the ASEAN region through better allocation of labor. Indeed, the first and foremost objective of the MRAs is to facilitate professional mobility within the region. Additional goals include exchanging information and expertise on standards and qualifications, and promoting the adoption of best practices that have been tried and tested within ASEAN. Except for the arrangements on engineering and accountancy, the MRAs also share an explicit focus on capacity building and the training of professionals.

Expectations are high among stakeholders in the region who hope the MRAs will meet these key objectives. For instance, in a survey conducted to inform this report, nearly 90% of the 168 regional stakeholders who answered the question of whether the MRA could facilitate the hiring of ASEAN professionals within the region answered positively. And, as Figure 1 shows, this sentiment is shared nearly equally among stakeholders from different sectors. Nearly 90% of respondents from governments and all respondents of professional associations said they believe in the potential mobility benefits of the MRAs, and the same is true of nearly 80 percent of respondents from the academic and business sectors.

Figure 1: Responses to the Survey Question “Do You Think that the Mutual Recognition Arrangement Will Facilitate the Hiring of Professionals from Other ASEAN Countries into Your Country, and Vice Versa?” by Respondents’ Sector, 2015

Notes: “Others” includes respondents who are practitioners, or work in hospital or other settings. Data based on the 171 respondents who answered the survey question.

Source: Asian Development Bank-Migration Policy Institute (ADB-MPI) Questionnaire – MRA Implementation, August 2015–February 2016, administered to respondents in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

Interviews, discussions, and consultations with more than 300 stakeholders from the region, conducted to inform this report, point to various reasons for this optimism. Officials from Brunei Darussalam, for instance, said they expect that the MRAs will make the recognition process “easier, faster” and more “cost-effective,” while their counterparts in Indonesia predict a “much easier and unrestricted” intraregional flow of professionals due to the creation of a “shared regional framework.”⁹ Similarly, officials of the Government of the Lao PDR said they expect that the MRA system would provide “full support” to professionals, including widening access to work and immigration permits, and thus increasing mobility.¹⁰ A range of government officials across professional sectors in the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam share similar positive expectations.¹¹

Table 2: Comparison of Mutual Recognition Arrangement Objectives across Occupational Sectors

Note: Surveying is not included in this comparison because it remains a framework arrangement.

Sources: Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), “ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Engineering Services,” 9 December 2005, http://asean.org/?static_post=asean-mutual-recognition-arrangement-on-engineering-services-kuala-lumpur-9-december-2005-2; ASEAN, “ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Nursing Services,” 8 December 2006, www.asean.org/storage/images/2015/april/mra_nursing/MRA%20Nursing%20signed.pdf; ASEAN, “ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Architectural Services,” 9 November 2007, www.asean.org/storage/images/archive/21137.pdf; ASEAN, “ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Dental Practitioners,” 26 February 2009, https://cil.nus.edu.sg/rp/pdf/2009%20ASEAN%20Mutual%20Recognition%20Arrangement%20on%20Dental%20Practitioners-pdf.pdf; ASEAN, “ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Medical Practitioners,” 26 February 2009, https://cil.nus.edu.sg/rp/pdf/2009%20ASEAN%20Mutual%20Recognition%20Arrangement%20on%20Medical%20Practitioners-pdf.pdf; ASEAN, “ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Tourism Professionals,” 9 November 2012, www.aseantourism.travel/media/files/20140508102208_mra_tourism_professionals_bw.pdf; ASEAN, “ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Accountancy Services,” 13 November 2014, www.asean.org/storage/images/2015/february/mra_on_accountancy/MRA%20on%20Accountancy%20(signed%20Nov%202014).pdf.

Some of this optimism can also be seen in the private sector. One private-sector leader in Cambodia, for instance, notes that his company has had problems hiring professionals from Singapore. Some candidates have claimed during the recruitment process that they have active licenses in Singapore, but these turned out to be expired. With an MRA in place, this stakeholder expects to more easily coordinate with the professional board in Cambodia to verify the licensing status of foreign professionals before hiring them.¹² Multinationals also anticipate benefits from the implementation of the MRAs when it comes to hiring foreign professionals. A partner at a leading firm in Brunei Darussalam, for instance, expects that the accountancy MRA will allow for the mobility of accountants “anywhere in ASEAN” and will “force countries to open up.”¹³