On December 5th, the Chinese Society of Engineers (CSE) signed a mutual recognition agreement (MRA) with the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM), and renewed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen engineering capacity building with the Myanmar Engineering Council (MEngC) in Beijing.

Malaysia and Myanmar are China’s crucial partners in the Belt and Road Initiative. Projects such as the East Coast Rail Link in Malaysia and the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor have fostered international collaboration between the countries’ engineering communities and created a pressing need for mutual recognition of engineering competence. The cooperation agreements brought about concrete measures for future cooperation in areas such as the professional development of engineers and the exchange of young engineers, to better cultivate talent for the Belt and Road Initiative. The MRA between IEM and CSE stands for mutual recognition of engineering competence between China and Malaysia. Besides facilitating Chinese engineers’ practice abroad, the MRA sets an example for China’s close cooperation in engineering capacity building with other ASEAN countries. Furthermore, it signifies that China’s engineering competence assessment system is recognized by members of the International Professional Engineers Agreement and the APEC Engineers Agreement adopted by the International Engineering Alliance, which is conducive to the membership application of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) to the Agreements.

The signing ceremony and meetings were attended by HE Junke, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Secretary of CAST and Chairman of CSE, LUO Hui, Vice Chairwoman and Secretary-General of CSE, Aung Kyaw Myat, President of MEngC and the Federation of Engineering Institutions of Asia and the Pacific (FEIAP), and Norlida Buniyamin, President of IEM.