http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...en-up-services-sector/articleshow/6623486.cms
25 Sep, 2010, 03.46AM IST, Amiti Sen & Souvik Sanyal,ET Bureau
India presses Singapore to open up services sector
NEW DELHI: India has asked Singapore to open up more services to allow a greater number of Indian professionals access the island nation’s cost accountancy and hospitality sectors. A comprehensive bilateral trade agreement between the two countries is being reviewed. “We want to take advantage of the second review to get more in services and are exploring all possibilities,” a commerce department official told ET.
Besides requesting Singapore to take deeper commitments in medical, health-related and education services, India needs to ask for expanding the existing list of 127 occupations by which professionals are allowed entry into Singapore, pointed out Amit Mitra, secretary general, Ficci. “The additional list has to include chefs, physiotherapists, nurses, school teachers, nutritionists, professionals in entertainment and hospitality sectors,” he said.
India has stepped up pressure on professional bodies from services sectors such as chartered accountancy and architecture to engage with their counterparts in Singapore to create conditions for implementing liberal rules already provided for in the bilateral pact entered into in 2005.
What is weighing on India’s mind most is the inability of professional councils from both sides to take advantage of what has already been offered in the CECA. According to estimates made by industry body CII, services exports from India to Singapore has gone up by 143% in 2008 to $1.5 billion after the implementation of the CECA.
The potential of increasing services exports to Singapore is huge as the country’s annual imports of services stands at around $80 billion. The second review of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement or CECA started in May this year and is likely to continue for a year following which changes would be made to the existing agreement.
The CECA provides for mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) allowing professionals in nursing, dentistry, medicines, architecture and accountancy to practice in the other country purely on the basis of the qualifications acquired in the home country. Rules for finalising MRAs have not been framed as professionals in the respective sectors have not shown much initiative to take the process ahead.
“During the second review, we are very serious about ensuring that professional councils meet and the rules get framed,” the official pointed out. The governments finally made a few of the professional councils meet during the first review meeting last month in Singapore and they will meet again in New Delhi later this month.
India’s accounting regulator Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, which participated in the meeting, is upbeat about the future but believes that MRAs could take more time. “While regulators of both the countries have concurred on the need to allow their respective professionals to work in their territories, the Singapore institute has asked us to wait because they are making some revisions to their curriculum,” said ICAI president Amarjit Chopra. He added the commerce ministry has called for signing of the bilateral agreement even though the process of revision of curriculum may be continued.
ICAI holds that since both Singapore and India are emerging economies, MRAs will be beneficial for both. The nursing councils also had a good meeting. The dentistry and medical councils, however, have not met, and the chances of MRAs in these sectors are not very bright as they lack integration in the domestic market, the official added.
25 Sep, 2010, 03.46AM IST, Amiti Sen & Souvik Sanyal,ET Bureau
India presses Singapore to open up services sector
NEW DELHI: India has asked Singapore to open up more services to allow a greater number of Indian professionals access the island nation’s cost accountancy and hospitality sectors. A comprehensive bilateral trade agreement between the two countries is being reviewed. “We want to take advantage of the second review to get more in services and are exploring all possibilities,” a commerce department official told ET.
Besides requesting Singapore to take deeper commitments in medical, health-related and education services, India needs to ask for expanding the existing list of 127 occupations by which professionals are allowed entry into Singapore, pointed out Amit Mitra, secretary general, Ficci. “The additional list has to include chefs, physiotherapists, nurses, school teachers, nutritionists, professionals in entertainment and hospitality sectors,” he said.
India has stepped up pressure on professional bodies from services sectors such as chartered accountancy and architecture to engage with their counterparts in Singapore to create conditions for implementing liberal rules already provided for in the bilateral pact entered into in 2005.
What is weighing on India’s mind most is the inability of professional councils from both sides to take advantage of what has already been offered in the CECA. According to estimates made by industry body CII, services exports from India to Singapore has gone up by 143% in 2008 to $1.5 billion after the implementation of the CECA.
The potential of increasing services exports to Singapore is huge as the country’s annual imports of services stands at around $80 billion. The second review of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement or CECA started in May this year and is likely to continue for a year following which changes would be made to the existing agreement.
The CECA provides for mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) allowing professionals in nursing, dentistry, medicines, architecture and accountancy to practice in the other country purely on the basis of the qualifications acquired in the home country. Rules for finalising MRAs have not been framed as professionals in the respective sectors have not shown much initiative to take the process ahead.
“During the second review, we are very serious about ensuring that professional councils meet and the rules get framed,” the official pointed out. The governments finally made a few of the professional councils meet during the first review meeting last month in Singapore and they will meet again in New Delhi later this month.
India’s accounting regulator Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, which participated in the meeting, is upbeat about the future but believes that MRAs could take more time. “While regulators of both the countries have concurred on the need to allow their respective professionals to work in their territories, the Singapore institute has asked us to wait because they are making some revisions to their curriculum,” said ICAI president Amarjit Chopra. He added the commerce ministry has called for signing of the bilateral agreement even though the process of revision of curriculum may be continued.
ICAI holds that since both Singapore and India are emerging economies, MRAs will be beneficial for both. The nursing councils also had a good meeting. The dentistry and medical councils, however, have not met, and the chances of MRAs in these sectors are not very bright as they lack integration in the domestic market, the official added.
