The Handbook “LIBERALISATION OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES THROUGH MUTUAL RECOGNITION IN ASEAN: ARCHITECTURE SERVICES” is one of four Handbooks published by the ASEAN Secretariat to provide guidance on the liberalisation of professional services in ASEAN. Three other Handbooks in this series deal respectively with the engineering, accountancy and surveying professions.

The Handbook is an important tool to disseminate information and create greater understanding of the liberalisation of the trade in the architectural services within ASEAN.

Through the Handbook, ASEAN architecture professionals will be able to obtain information on how to qualify and practice as an architect, either as an employee, through collaborations or through the setting-up of commercial presence, in all ASEAN Member States (AMS).

The ability of architects to move beyond national borders within ASEAN will assist ASEAN to accelerate the objective of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. Under the AEC, the ability of architects to provide services beyond national borders is facilitated by the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Trade in Services (AFAS) 19951 and the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on Architectural Services 2007. The MRA is one of the important tools to increase the level of liberalisation of cross-border trade in architectural services in ASEAN.