Filipino professionals such as doctors, dentists and accountants will soon be allowed to practice their professions in the Southeast Asian region even without the requirement of taking and passing licensure examinations of these countries.

This is possible because of the Asean Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) on Medical Practitioners, on Dental Practitioners and on Accountancy Services. The three agreements were recently signed by 10-member the 10-member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during the four-day 14th Asean Summit held at at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Cha-am, Thailand.

However, implementation of the MRA will not be immediate as informed by the Asean deputy secretary general, Pushpanathan Sundram. As of this writing, the MRA’s are mere facilitating agreements.

He said, “We have to work out the details. There is a process that needs to be followed.”

The deputy secretary general said that the licensure examinations in Southeast Asian region needs to be coordinated so that a license in one’s home country can be used in other countries. Taking another licensure exam in the host country would not be necessary.

Pushpanathan informed that the same agreements had already been signed for other professions. The agreement for architectural services and surveying were signed during 13th Asean summit in 2007 held in Singapore. Prior to that, agreements for nursing and engineering were also signed.

However, only the MRA on engineering is now effective and currently being implemented. A number of Filipino engineers are now employed in Thailand and a Laos.

Surin Pitsuwan, Asean Secretary GeneraL SAID, “We need to compare our standards so the quality of services is acceptable within the region.”