IT was during the 27th Summit of the Asean in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in November 2015, that the “Asean Community Vision 2025” was signed and endorsed by the leaders of the region.
In a nutshell, the Declaration charts the path for the consolidation of the Asean community over the next 10 years. This forward-looking road map seeks to build an Asean community that is “politically cohesive, economically integrated and socially responsible”.
The Asean 2025 Document is the result of years of planning and forceful deliberations, reflecting the resolve of member-states to forge ahead with the next phase of
Asean’s evolvement.
One of the key points of the vision underscores the wish of member-states to engineer a well-integrated and connected market-driven economy within the global economic system. The succeeding 28th and 29th summits held in Vientiane, Lao PDR, last year further refined and solidified the document.
What the Asean leaders who are now meeting in Manila will do to polish such an ambitious endeavor is worth watching. Under the theme “Partnering for Change, Engaging the World”, this year’s summit will be held from April 26 to 29, with the Philippines as host.
Focus will also be on President Duterte who has been in the global spotlight of late due to his controversial all-out war on drugs.
As part of the economic integration agenda of the region, the Asean Economic Community (AEC), which debuted in December 2015, is slowly evolving to rival that of the European Economic Union. It would be interesting to see how Duterte will navigate the country in taking advantage of the region’s combined GDP of $2.65 trillion. This immense economic prospect under the AEC is simply too good to pass up, and the ball is now in Duterte’s court for his economic team to play or drop. The 10 member-nations of the Asean have ironed out the AEC’s fundamentals, but its full-scale rollout is still in its early stages.
The AEC seeks to integrate the region into a single market and production base to transform Asean, and assimilate it into the global economy. Once fully implemented, the AEC foresees free trade in goods and services, investment liberalization and the free flow of skilled labor.
The Philippines cannot afford to miss out on the huge economic potential that the AEC brings. Without doubt, Duterte needs all the inputs of his foreign affairs and economic lieutenants to help him convey the country to socioeconomic progress that the AEC is envisioned to bring to the entire region.
Unlike the European Union, the AEC seeks for an economic and financial integration bereft of a monetary union or political amalgamation. It is by far Asean’s grandiose undertaking, which is expected to boost the region’s GDP by 5 percent by 2030.
The growth enhancement should be felt over the next decade, as contingencies are steadily being implemented through the AEC Blueprint 2025. This is the map that shows how the bloc will endure while working toward a unified economy between now and 2025. But what makes the AEC even more interesting is the Asean Single Window, a regional initiative to accelerate cargo clearance that has already been established by some Asean countries to help simplify the trade of goods.
Financial integration and capital account liberalization will propel economic rebalancing within Asean toward the AEC’s goal of evenhanded and all-encompassing development. This coordinated approach might be tough to reach without political assimilation because the Asean has a much punier institutional framework to guarantee that requirements are met.
Before the region realizes stronger integration and profit from it, the Philippines is expected to chime in its inputs on how best to implement improvements, not only to the AEC, but to Asean as a whole.
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