In December 1997, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted a vision till 2020, aimed at “transforming ASEAN into a stable, prosperous, and highly competitive region with equitable economic development, and reduced poverty and socio-economic disparities”. In October 2003, the ASEAN member countries agreed on the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2020, resting on the three pillars of security community, economic community, and sociocultural community. In order to accelerate the realization of the vision, the ASEAN leaders in 2007 expressed their commitment to establish an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015 as a single market and production base. In line with this, ASEAN agreed to develop “a single and coherent blueprint for advancing the AEC” and the AEC Blueprint as an action plan was signed by ASEAN leaders in November 2007.

For such a big move, ASEAN member countries certainly have a sizeable workload. There remain challenges and impediments to each country and the region as a whole, the most pressing of which lies in whether the less-developed members can catch up with more advanced ones. Yet the progress of ASEAN so far, particularly in amalgamating themselves as a single block in negotiating and implementing free trade agreements (FTAs) with other major trading partners, brought about hopes for on-time realization of the AEC goal.

This chapter attempts to provide a Vietnam perspective of the progress and challenges for ASEAN in establishing the AEC. Apart from the introduction, the chapter consists of four sections. The first briefly reviews the achievements ASEAN has recorded on the way from Vision 2020 to the AEC. The second describes the progress and the challenges in realizing the goal of the AEC. The third section covers Vietnam's experience and challenges in ASEAN integration. Finally, the author draws some concluding remarks on realizing the AEC by 2015.