The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, is rapidly approaching a new milestone — the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of 2015.
Malaysia, which holds the ASEAN chair this year, is committed to realizing the vision of the ASEAN community, the nation's Prime Minister, Najib Razak said at the inaugural Cap10 ASEAN CEO summit held in Kuala Lumpur on 12 February 2015. "The community is designed to open up opportunities for people and businesses, by creating an ASEAN with freer movement of goods, services, skilled labor and capital." said Mr. Najib. This will also include tariff reductions and streamlining of certain administrative procedures.
After more than a decade, the AEC has already achieved 82.1% of its stipulated targets; however, ASEAN is far from creating the desired single market: tariffs have been lowered, but non-tariff barriers continue to hamper trade in the region; despite the ASEAN Single Window being ready and key trade agreements are already in practice, the region suffers from a lack of infrastructure. Even though these challenges still remain, the 10 member states continue to work together to reduce economic and financial weakness while providing a bigger and more attractive market for investors.
In all, the future is clearly in favor of the AEC.
Sources: AsiaOne East Asia Forum