Dental Tribune Asia Pacific Edition No.7+8, 2017

Dental Tribune Asia Paciﬁ c Edition | 7+8/2017 ASIA PACIFIC NEWS Labour migration still difﬁ cult 03 m o c . k c o t s r e t t u h S / t i n a n n o h C © By DTI CEBU CITY, Philippines: Aiming to facilitate dental workforce mobil- ity among member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a mutual recog- nition agreement (MRA) for dental practitioners was signed by mem- ber economies in 2009. However, almost a decade later, the ASEAN community still seems far from realising the unhindered move- ment of skilled professionals. Among other factors, the im- plementation of the MRA has re- portedly faced difﬁ culties because of differences in national regula- tions. According to Rahmat Pra- mono, representative of Indonesia to the ASEAN, implementation of services by medical and dental practitioners are among the most difﬁ cult to negotiate because of the different systems of instruc- tion and curricula followed in each country. According to a Migration Pol- icy Institute report, titled Open Windows, Closed Doors: Mutual Recognition Arrangements on Pro- fessional Services in the ASEAN Re- gion, dental, medical and nursing MRAs are the least open of those signed by ASEAN member states. Unlike their counterparts in tour- ism, for which the framework au- tomatically recognises compe- tency certiﬁ cates as issued at ori- gin, health professionals inter- ested in working in another ASEAN country have to follow a complex application process. After obtain- ing a licence from their respec- tive professional regulatory agency and meeting MRA-related crite- ria, such as minimum years of experience, applicants are still faced with additional local require- ments, which vary from country to country. In an interview with Philip- pine newspaper SunStar, oral sur- geon and implantologist Dr Steve Mark Gan, the Philippines’ repre- sentative to the MRA on dental practitioners, pointed out that members of the economic bloc are still apprehensive about allowing foreign dental professionals to prac- tise in their respective countries. “It’s a tricky situation right now. It may take some time,” Gan said. While Philippine dentists still cannot work freely in the ASEAN region, the country’s own products remain among the world’s best, drawing dental tourists from the US and Australia, Gan remarked. In 2015, medical tourism in the Philippines generated US$3 billion in revenue from about 200,000 tourists, according to data from the Department of Tourism. In the ASEAN community, Singapore and Thailand are the country’s strong- est competitors in the ﬁ eld, but ser- vices in the Philippines still cost 40 per cent less, Cebu Daily News recently reported. In addition to the MRA for dental practitioners, the Philip- pines has signed agreements for eight other professions, including surveying, engineering, nursing, architecture and accountancy. However, so far, the ASEAN bloc has only managed to implement the MRAs for engineers, architects and tourism professionals. Addressing the untapped po- tential of the MRAs to build and utilise human capital in the long term, Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute and lead author of the above-mentioned report, said: “The greatest achieve- ment of the ASEAN MRAs so far is rather indirect: The signing of these agreements has inspired a signiﬁ cant capacity-building ef- fort in the less-advanced ASEAN Member States to upgrade pro- fessional regulation and training standards.” AD Tetric® N-Ceram Bulk Fill The efﬁcient posterior composite Save 55% on time* and achieve amazing results N O W A S A F L O W ! m a r e C N ® c - l i r t e T d n a w o F - N ® c i r t e T h t i w d e r a p m o C * . t s e u q e r n o l e b a I v o c e r L I G HT I N I i n ® R O T I A T T E N TED P A l i a v a a t a D Tetric® N-Ceram Bulk Fill Tetric® N-Flow Bulk Fill sculptable ﬂowable www.ivoclarvivadent.com Ivoclar Vivadent AG Bendererstr. 2 | 9494 Schaan | Liechtenstein | Tel.: +423 235 35 35 | Fax: +423 235 33 60

Dental Tribune Asia Pacific Edition No.7+8, 2017

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