It has taken ASEAN a whole decade to translate its vision of an ASEAN economic community into a blueprint. The beginning was the ASEAN Vision 2020 that was adopted by the ASEAN leaders in December 1997 in Kuala Lumpur. The vision envisaged “a stable, prosperous and highly competitive ASEAN economic region in which there is a free flow of goods, services, investment and freer flow of capital, equitable economic development and reduced poverty and socio-economic disparities” by the year 2020. The Hanoi Plan of Action was issued as a first step to implement the vision.

A further boost came from the Summit in Bali in October 2003, when the leaders signed the Declaration of ASEAN (Bali) Concord II. They declared that the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) shall be the goal of regional economic integration as outlined in the ASEAN Vision 2020. In December 2005, the ASEAN Leaders discussed the acceleration of the AEC to 2015.

Subsequently, the High Level Task Force (HLTF) on ASEAN Economic Integration took up the matter and recommended to the ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) that the establishment of the AEC be advanced from 2020 to 2015. They also requested the ASEAN Secretariat to develop “a single and coherent blueprint for advancing the AEC by identifying the characteristics and elements of the AEC by 2015 consistent with the Bali Concord II with clear targets and timelines for implementation of various measures as well as pre-agreed flexibilities to accommodate the interests of the CLMV and other concerned Member Countries”. The AEM endorsed the recommendation and agreed to propose the acceleration of the AEC to the leaders at their Summit in January 2007 in Cebu, the Philippines.

At the ASEAN Summit in November 2007 in Singapore, the leaders adopted the AEC Blueprint. They stated that each ASEAN member country shall abide by and implement the AEC by 2015. They also tasked the concerned Ministers, assisted by the ASEAN Secretariat, to implement the AEC Blueprint and to report regularly on the progress of its implementation through the Council of the AEC.

THE BLUEPRINT

The AEC Blueprint is the first of its kind for ASEAN. The Blueprint has been crafted to realize the AEC, defined by its four main characteristics, namely, a single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy.