When the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations announced in 2007 the intention to build an integrated regional economic community in less than a decade, the international community didn’t hold its breath.
And as expected by quite a few observers, seven years later the goal of establishing the ASEAN Economic Community by the end of 2015 is still far, and with only a year left to meet the deadline, pretty much all stakeholders — even the Asian Development Bank — agree it won’t happen, at least on time.
So what went wrong and what needs to be done to get back on track and speed up the integration process again? Aside from the usual and oft-discussed arguments of policy delays and gaps in development progress between member countries, the bloc’s dynamics, structure and capacity — or lack of — may have contributed to the delay and, to an extent, mishaps of the whole integration process, according to an ADB expert on ASEAN.
About the author
Lean Alfred Santos@DevexLeanAS
Lean Alfred Santos is a former Devex development reporter focusing on the development community in Asia-Pacific, including major players such as the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. He previously covered Philippine and international business and economic news, sports and politics.
