The importance of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)

Abstract

The ASEAN leaders agreed to accelerate the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015 and to change ASEAN into a region with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labor, and freer flow of capital. The AEC will establish ASEAN in the following key characteristics: (1) a single market and production base, (2) a highly competitive economic region, (3) a region of equitable economic development, and (4) a region fully integrated into the global economy. These elements are mutually reinforcing.