the top five exporters of engineering consultancy
services when compared with the USA, UK,
Netherlands or Canada, however its engineering
service industry manages to contribute a significant
portion to the country’s GDP. In the aforementioned
countries many of the firms are already public listed
and create thousands of employment opportunities
and operate across the globe.
9.0 What needs to be done to the Registration
of Engineers Act?
In tandem with the amendments to the REA,
BEM has been a signatory to the ASEAN Mutual
Recognition Arrangement (MRA) since 2005 for
engineering services. This is to meet the ASEAN
Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) as
shown in Table 3. The slow pace of negotiations
within ASEAN to allow mobility of professional
engineers has resulted in the targets not being
met. Each country within ASEAN has different
levels of economic development and professional
engineering work is jealously guarded in each
economy.
The MRA has two major restrictions which are
akin to Section 10A (Registration of Temporary
Engineers) of the REA. The MRA does not provide
the foreign professional engineer with a right to
an independent practice in the host country.
Secondly the foreign professional engineer needs
to apply to the regulatory board of the host country
for authorisation and work in collaboration with
a registered professional engineer of the host
country. These restrictions become acute when
the host country itself does not have a regulatory
board in place.
The restrictions imposed by the MRA
and the economic arguments are convincing
BOARD OF ENGINEERS (BEM)
Registered Engineering Consultancy Practice (ECP)
Body Corporate
Partnership
Max. 30% equity for
any person/bodies
Partners must be
P.E. with
Practising
Certificate
Remaining equity
must be held by
P.E.s with Practising
Certificate
Sole
Proprietorship
Must be P.E.
with Practising
Certificate
Note:
Equity and composition of the Board
of Directors are prescribed in the
Regulation.
At least 2/3s of Directors must be P.E. with Practising
Certificate. Remaining 1/3 may be anybody/person
and must named a P.E. with P.C. in charge
Figure 14 – Registration of ECP
71