ASEAN Common Market Lags

The Jakarta Post reports that planning for an ASEAN common market is behind schedule: The idea for an ASEAN single market, initiated in 2007, is unlikely to come into effect on schedule due to unsettled problems among member states. The high-profile ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), also called the ASEAN single market, may not be fully ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

The Jakarta Post reports that planning for an ASEAN common market is behind schedule:

The Jakarta Post reports that planning for an ASEAN common market is behind schedule:

The idea for an ASEAN single market, initiated in 2007, is unlikely to come into effect on schedule due to unsettled problems among member states.

The high-profile ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), also called the ASEAN single market, may not be fully implemented in 2015 as it appears there is a mismatch between political ambition and political will among several member states, a report says.

The implementation of the AEC, under which 10 member states of ASEAN are set to see economic integration, is behind schedule on its stated objectives and timelines, according to a report published by the CIMB ASEAN Research Institute.

Officially, the regional organization still stands by its plan to create an economic community by 2015:

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) shall be the goal of regional economic integration by 2015. AEC envisages the following key characteristics: (a) a single market and production base, (b) a highly competitive economic region, (c) a region of equitable economic development, and (d) a region fully integrated into the global economy….

The ASEAN Leaders adopted the ASEAN Economic Blueprint at the 13th ASEAN Summit on 20 November 2007 in Singapore to serve as a coherent master plan guiding the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community 2015.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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