“I know of only one Asean non-Thai nurse who has passed the local certification test, and she was part-American but lived in Thailand for a decade,” said Dr Saowaruj. “Keep in mind that the local exams are all in Thai language. And MRAs are still subject to all domestic laws and regulations, such as alien employment rules requiring work permits and the 39 protected professions in which foreigners are not allowed to work. Even the visas we allow for business visitors are different than what Thailand agreed to in GATT.
“So in practice you can see MRAs don’t work very well. I don’t see this changing by 2015. The framework for MRAs was set in 2003 but we only have them for seven professions at this point. Even we have a shortage in some professions such as nursing, but I don’t think this is likely to change anytime soon.”
She was also pessimistic about whether Asean members had the political will to liberalise the service sector.
“Only Singapore is trying to promote the free flow of skilled labour. Thailand doesn’t want to change anything anytime soon, and most Asean member want to keep the status quo. Don’t forget MRAs are still voluntary.
“I think many Thais are afraid they will lose their jobs to foreigners if the service sector opens up. Of course the answer is to get better training and pick up more skills so they can acquire better jobs, but both the government and professional councils prefer to ignore this point. The government needs to announce a national policy regarding opening up the services sector to investment and labour, but implementation has been very slow. There simply is no economic reason to continue protectionism in this sector.
“Most professional councils don’t see any benefit in actively using MRAs. They believe protectionist policies better serve their members. But the Nursing Council is starting to realise maybe it could open up the sector to all Asean members voluntarily, and this may have a knock-on effect for other services.”
Dr Saowaruj doesn’t want to cast a negative light on the AEC. After all, she supports much of what it is trying to accomplish.
“Asean has had great success in eliminating most tariffs for inter-regional trade,” she said. “And I think the AEC provides good motivation for the government to do something about the service sector.
“I’m an economist—of course I support a competitive, free and fair market. But we have a long way to go in many sectors. Just look at telecommunications; it is not competitive and is run by only three companies. It would be better to open the market up to foreigners and allow more money and technology to flow in. In fact, any industry that is high-capital and high-tech should be opened up.