ASEAN Policies

AJCCM 2015 Goals

By 2015, the AJCCM will deliver the 4 objectives of the MRA:

Objective Action Plan
1.1 facilitate mobility of medical practitioners within ASEAN and provide opportunities for capacity building and training of medical practitioners;
  • Utilize temporary licensing and registration in five areas of practice as focus of mobility of medical practitioners.
  • Define the mechanism of mobility for medical practitioners for each AMS.
  • Construct table of comparison providing information regarding Limited Practice, its application, requirements and conditions, duration, and conditions for renewal.
  • Construct the tables for the other four categories intersessionally and submit them in the next AJCCM Meeting.
1.2 exchange information and enhance cooperation in respect of mutual recognition of medical practitioners; and
  • Continue to update the comparison matrix as appears in ANNEX 6andshare information through their respective websites.
  • Maintain aggregate data on ASEAN medical practitioners accorded temporary licence/registration under the five categories identified in the concept paper.
  • The statistical data will be collected at every AJCCM meeting.
1.3 promote adoption of best practices on standards and qualifications
  • Continue to share best practices on standards and qualifications through their respective websites, as well as professional exchanges.
  • Pilot three co mmon issues facing AMS as topics to share experience, best practices on standards and qualifications.

ASEAN Member States Policy for Temporary Licensing and Registration

The provisions for temporary licensing or temporary registration have been in existence for many years. There are differences in the category of activity. The common provision among AMS is on allowing temporary permit or license for humanitarian services. There are also provisions for limited practice, training, expert visits.

The ten ASEAN Member States have already agreed on conferring temporary licensing or temporary registration on the following 5 areas::

  • Limited Practice
  • Expert Visits
  • Education and Training
  • Humanitarian Missions
  • Research

and below matrices lay out the different policies of ASEAN Member States on the above 5 areas.

There are different mechanisms of mobility and the matrices below will indicate which will be applicable to the different areas of temporary licensing:

  • refers to an independent medical practitioner who applies directly to a healthcare institution, Once approved, he/she will then inform the PMRA of the country of origin, and request for a certificate of good standing. He/She will then present his credentials to the PMRA of the host country, and request for endorsement or clearance to be admitted by the institution.
  • refers to an independent medical practitioner applies to the PMRA of his/her country of origin, providing information on his plans to apply for foreign employment in a country of his choice. The PMRA evaluates his qualifications, and favourably endorses the professional. The PMRA provides a certificate of good standing. He/She then applies to the PMRA of the host country, for endorsement and clearance, after which he applies to the healthcare institution.

refers to an independent medical practitioner applies directly to healthcare institution. The institution will communicate with PMRA of host country for endorsement or clearance. If endorsed or cleared, the healthcare institution can proceed to bring in the independent medical practitioner.

1. Limited Practice

Country Temporary Licensing/ Registration Private or Government Mechanism of Mobility (1,2 and/or 3) Requirements and conditions Duration
Brunei Darussalam Yes Private 3 Compliance to domestic regulations 3 months (renewable)
Cambodia Yes Both 3 - Compliance to domestic regulations,
- Subject to monitoring and evaluation of performance annually,
- Submission of annual formal report (i.e. patient outcomes) 		1 year (renewable)
Indonesia Yes Both 1 and 2 Compliance to domestic regulations 1 year (renewable subject to evaluation by institution, Ministry of Health and Indonesia Medical Council)
Lao PDR Yes Both 1 and 2 Compliance to domestic regulations According to the period of the project but up to 1 year (renewable).
Malaysia Yes Both 3 - Compliance to domestic regulation,
- Supervised practice by fully registered medical practitioner,
- Limited to place of practice		 3 months (renewable)
Myanmar Yes Both 3 - Compliance to domestic regulation
- Limited to place of practice and specialty
- National fully registered counterpart required		 1 year (renewable)
Philippines Yes Both 1 and 2 - Compliance to domestic regulations,
- Subject to monitoring and evaluation of performance,
- Submission of formal report (i.e. patient outcomes)		 1 year (renewable)
Singapore Yes Government 3 Refer to Singapore Medical Council website for current information up to 4 years
Thailand Yes Government 3 -Under supervision of fully license medical practitioner,
- Limited to place, specialty and period of practice
- Submission of formal report (i.e. patient outcomes)		 According to the period of the project but not more than 1 year (renewable)
Viet Nam

Please refer to the above headnote on five areas of temporary licensing and registration.

Please refer to the above headnote on different mobility mechanisms.