Foreword by Ong Keng Yong

Summary

ASEAN is celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2007. The usual busy meeting schedule is now spiced up with festivities and exuberance of spirit and colours. It will be an exciting year for ASEAN.

At the same time, the ASEAN Leaders are forging strongly ahead with their plans for the ASEAN Community, especially the effort to integrate the ten ASEAN economies into one single market and regional production base. This is an unprecedented initiative and one which would break the traditional mindset and create a new paradigm of regional cooperation and development. Many partners of ASEAN as well as stakeholders from numerous sectors are involved. Their joint endeavour would establish ASEAN a firm foundation for the intense competition and the complexities of a globalized community.

Over the past five years, the Regional Economic Policy Support Facility (REPSF) under the ASEAN–Australia Development Cooperation Program(AADCP) has supported ASEAN's community-building efforts by providing the ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN bodies with economic policy analysis and advice to assist them in putting in place measures and actions contributing to achieving economic integration and competitiveness.

This book is a collection of select policy research on ASEAN economic integration issues conducted under the Facility. What are the implications of the goal of a single market? How will integration affect the less developed member countries of ASEAN? What strategies should ASEAN employ to free up trade and facilitate investment? How can ASEAN add value to the economic relations with its dialogue partners? These are just some of the challenging questions examined in this collection of studies by some of the most eminent policy analysts from ASEAN and Australia.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to ASEAN's strong supporters in neighbouring Australia for instituting such an innovative economic research facility as part of the cooperation programme assisting ASEAN deal with the challenges of integration. I would like to commend the various experts who have been engaged by the Facility over the years. I thank them for sharing their knowledge and unique insights to help ASEAN navigate through the complicated situation. Last but not the least, I would like to thank all the relevant ASEAN sectoral bodies and the ASEAN Secretariat staff who have in one way or another contributed to these research endeavours.