MORE
FOREIGN JOBS FOR INDIAN PROFESSIONALS
Indian professionals wanting to pursue careers abroad will get
qualitatively improved offers by May '05 from the US and other
developed countries. All thanks to the just-concluded framework
agreement for post-'05 WTO talks .
On the ground,
this could mean professionals from the developing world will
get to take advantage of job opportunities in a wider range
of services. It also implies that rules pertaining to transnational
movements will be relaxed. Further, visa regimes could become
less discretionary and more norm-oriented.
The agreement binds
Washington and Brussels to make offers that are truly gainful
to professionals from developing countries, besides liberalising
the visa regime . A provision introduced in the agreement
to this effect is expected to give a big boost to India's
export of professional services.
While India has
an entrenched presence in IT services , it now hopes to make
major inroads into the highly-remunerative non-IT service
markets in the West. It is reckoned that among the 15 non-IT
services, India apparently has huge potential in healthcare,
education and R&D components like clinical trials.
In return for the
proposed improved offers by the West, India may need to relax
controls on foreign investment in sensitive sectors like telecom
and insurance, though this is not enshrined in the agreement,
sources said. The framework agreement reached in Geneva lays
a special emphasis on Mode-4 of services concerning transnational
movements.
As per the agreement,
"With a view to providing effective market access to
all members and in order to ensure a substantive outcome,
members shall strive to ensure a high quality of offers, particularly
in sectors and modes of supply of export interest to developing
countries, with special attention to be given to least-developed
countries."
The global size
of the healthcare services sector is estimated at $17 trillion.
It cuts across all four Modes of trade, including diagnosis/clinical
consultations and tele-medicine (Mode 1); health tourism,
and education & training (Mode 2); establishment of hospitals/diagnostic
centres/clinics etc (Mode 3) and movement of doctors and nurses,
consultants, health management personnel (Mode 4).
The new provision
is expected to give a fillip to Mode 4, which is more important
for India, while not constricting the scope of the other modes.
The provision mandates WTO members to achieve progressively
higher levels of liberalisation with no "a priori exclusion"
of any service sector or mode of supply and to give special
attention to sectors and modes of supply of export interest
to developing countries. Accordingly, a revised round of offers
are to be made by May '05.
