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re-stated as the “freer flow of skilled labor”. There is some
logic here. ASEAN is unlike Fortress Europe that has a system of
strict laws and regulations. ASEAN is more an open economy,
whose labor market has been evolving in a gradual manner.
And despite the lack of progress on the MRAs, there has been
an upsurge in the circulation of high-level skills. There is even
an emerging “war for talents” among ASEAN industries.
The challenge then to the ASEAN and the individual
ASEAN Member State is how to strategize human resource
development – as a “shared resource” – in the service of
regional and national development, not necessarily in support
of a unilateral program of trade liberalization. In short, there
is a need to bring back or re-focus the debate on MRAs or the
free or freer movement of skilled labor to finding the right
nexus connecting mobility to development. Both labor-sending
and labor-receiving countries have a stake in a rebalanced
approach to MRAs and AQRF and the larger ASEAN goal of
building a people-centered ASEAN.
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