Realizing The Asean Economic Community

The goal of this book is to assess empirically the likely economic effects of the AEC on the ASEAN member states and associated stakeholders.

At the Ninth ASEAN Summit in Bali on 7 October 2003, the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to establish an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2020. It is envisaged that the AEC would be a single market and production base, with a free flow of goods and services, investments, capital and skilled labour. An integrated ASEAN with a sizeable market of over 500 million people could become an alternative to China as a regional production base for MNCs. Although there are roadmaps for the fast-track integration of eleven priority sectors, an overall longer-term roadmap needs to be formulated to realize the AEC. This book addresses the main issues.

ASEAN has produced a plan of action on ASEAN Economic Integration, which is annexed to the Bali Concord II. To kick-start the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the plan of action provides numerous policy recommendations to be implemented over the next 1 to 2 years. At the track-two level, research institutes/think-tanks such as ASEAN-ISIS, ISEAS and CSIS (Jakarta) have contributed concept papers on the AEC and the ASEAN Security Community (ASC). This Roundtable provided the opportunity for scholars and experts on ASEAN to "brain-storm" in a more comprehensive and integrated manner, the different ideas and proposals underpinning the process of community building that ASEAN is embarking upon. This report reflects the conclusions that emerged from the ASEAN Community Roundtable.

On 28 July 2008, the ASEAN Studies Centre and the Regional Economic Studies Programme, both of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung organized a roundtable on The ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint. The brainstorming session gathered Southeast Asian experts from the region to discuss the AEC Blueprint, which ASEANs leaders had adopted at their summit meeting in November 2007, and the prospects of any obstacles to its implementation by the target year, 2015. The roundtable started with a progress report on the AEC Blueprint given by S. Pushpanathan, Principal Director of Economic Integration and Finance, ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta. Thereafter, the sessions examined the various aspects of the Blueprint tackling the non-tariff barriers, designing a comprehensive ASEAN Investment Agreement, a regional framework for competition policy, the role of infrastructure development in economic integration, the importance of international production networks in economic integration, etc.

"The papers compiled in this volume were presented during the ASEAN Roundtable on 29 April 2010 and during a brainstorming session on 23 September 2010 by the ASEAN Studies Centre of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies"--Foreword.

Despite clear aspirations by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to create an effective and transparent framework to facilitate movements among skilled professionals within the ASEAN by December 2015, progress has been slow and uneven. This report examines the challenges ASEAN member states face in achieving the goal of greater mobility for the highly skilled, including hurdles in recognizing professional qualifications, opening up access to certain jobs, and a limited willingness by professionals to move due to perceived cultural, language, and socioeconomic differences. The cost of these barriers is staggering and could reduce the region's competitiveness in the global market. This report launches a multiyear effort by ADB and the Migration Policy Institute to better understand the issues and develop strategies to gradually overcome the problems. It offers a range of policy recommendations that have been discussed among experts in a high-level expert meeting, taking into account best practices locally and across the region.

ASEAN has produced a plan of action on ASEAN Economic Integration, which is annexed to the Bali Concord II. To kick-start the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the plan of action provides numerous policy recommendations to be implemented over the next 1 to 2 years. At the track-two level, research institutes/think-tanks such as ASEAN-ISIS, ISEAS and CSIS (Jakarta) have contributed concept papers on the AEC and the ASEAN Security Community (ASC).Against this backdrop, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) organized the ASEAN Community Roundtable in Singapore from 4 to 5 June 2004. The main theme of the Roundtable was entitled "e;Towards Realizing an ASEAN Community"e;.This Roundtable provided the opportunity for scholars and experts on ASEAN to "e;brain-storm"e; in a more comprehensive and integrated manner, the different ideas and proposals underpinning the process of community building that ASEAN is embarking upon. This report reflects the conclusions that emerged from the ASEAN Community Roundtable.

One of the primary objectives of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), established in 2015, was to boost skilled labor mobility within the region. This insightful book takes stock of the existing trends and patterns of skilled labor migration in the ASEAN. It endeavors to identify the likely winners and losers from the free movement of natural persons within the region through counterfactual policy simulations. Finally, it discusses existing issues and obstacles through case studies, as well as other sectoral examples.