Professional licensure examinations for Filipino architects, certified public accountants, and civil, electrical, mechanical and electronics engineers will be conducted in Al-Khobar and Jeddah this November by the Philippine Professional Regulation Commission (PRC). The PRC, announcing the holding of these licensure examinations in Saudi Arabia, said similar examinations will also take place in Abu Dhabi in the UAE and Doha, Qatar in December this year. In Hong Kong, licensure examinations for Filipino nurses and midwives will be administered in December, according to the PRC announcement. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, during her visit to Al-Khobar on Sept. 20, announced before a thousand Filipinos who gathered to meet her that the holding of licensure examinations for Filipino professionals working overseas will be conducted annually in countries where they are deployed. The holding of regular professional licensure examinations in Saudi Arabia was made through the representations of various Filipino professional organizations in Al-Khobar, Riyadh and Jeddah. A similar demand was made by professional groups in other Gulf countries. In Hong Kong, the Filipino Nurses Association and Integrated Midwives Association of the Philippines also petitioned for the holding of licensure examinations for nurses and midwives in that territory.