Soon Indian nurses may practise in Singapore as it signs MRA pact

NEW DELHI : India has achieved the first significant breakthrough in its attempts to export professional services by signing a pact with Singapore that could soon allow Indian nurses to practise in the Southeast Asian country. The two countries will recognise each other's degrees under the pact, called the mutual recognition agreement (MRA), which was signed after a decade of intense negotiations.

This is the first such pact signed by India in services under a comprehensive free trade agreement with any country . Singapore will recognise nursing degrees awarded by Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Manipal College of Nursing, Christian Medical College (Vellore) and College of Nursing, Thiruvananthapuram. India and Singapore had signed a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) in 2005, cutting customs duties on goods, but progress is still awaited on movement of professionals.

"Singapore has recognised degrees from four Indian nursing institutes under the MRA recently. It is a first but significant step towards enhancing bilateral ties in the services sector, which is our inherent strength.The idea is to start with some institutes and then scale them up," said a government official. The government is also negotiating MRAs for other professions, including chartered accountancy, architecture, medicine and den tistry with Singapore. Besides, it is in talks with Korea and Japan to recognise Indian degrees in various spheres including nursing and medicine.

The Indian Nursing Council had insisted that every nurse trained at any of the country's recognised institutions be eligible to practise in Singapore, a demand not found feasible by the partner country . "We are the most competitive in nursing. This will open avenues for our nurses to go and practise in Singapore at competitive packages," said the official, requesting anonymity .

The MRA is aimed at enabling professionals in India and Singapore to offer services in each other's territory as the pact will give recognition to their degrees in both the countries. It will open up a safer avenue for Indian nurses, who also end up in countries like Iraq where they face severe security threats. In July last year, 46 Indian nurses were rescued by the government.

India is making efforts to expand the scope of its services exports, services exports, beyond information technology.The government announced tax incentives under Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS), which is in the form of fully transferable duty credit scrips with reward rate ranging between 3% and 5%.

The government is targeting combined exports - merchandise and services - to double to $900 billion by 2019-20.

Although India has similar comprehensive pacts with Japan and South Korea, there has been no progress on the services front with these countries.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com