The Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the East Asia and Pacific Region of the World Bank have signed an agreement for the World Bank to provide advisory services to ASEAN to strengthen its capacity to monitor progress towards achieving the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

ASEAN, consisting of its ten member states (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), is driving regional integration in South east Asia by its goal to establish the AEC by 2015. It is expected that ASEAN countries will then form a single market in which there will be a free flow of goods, services, investment, skilled labour and capital investment.

Within the AEC Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity Building Programme, ASEAN will embark on a systematic monitoring of the region’s integration initiatives to realize the AEC. “Through this programme, ASEAN will not only be in a position to monitor its integration progress but also to come up with appropriate recommendations to address the identified gaps to further enhance the timely implementation of the AEC," said Lim Hong Hin, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for the AEC.

“The ten ASEAN economies together constitute a market of USD1.8 trillion, measured by gross domestic product, a very significant economic block,” Bert Hofman, World Bank Chief Economist for the East Asia Pacific Region, added. “Deepening regional integration through the AEC can become a new driver of economic growth for the South East Asia region.”

May 17, 2012

Source: Tax News

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