ASEAN
Economic integration

The group's integration plan has raised concerns, in particular, the 2015 deadline. Business and economy experts who attended the Lippo-UPH Dialogue in Naypyidaw cited unresolved issues relating to aviation, agriculture, and human resources. Some panelists, among them, Kishore Mahbubani, warned against high expectations at the onset. He stated: "Please do not expect a big bang event in 2015 where everything is going to happen overnight when the ASEAN Economic Community comes into being. We've made progress in some areas and unfortunately regressed in some areas."

Some panelists enumerated other matters to be dealt with for a successful launch. Among them were the communications issues involving the 600 million citizens living in the region, increasing understanding in business, current visa arrangements, demand for specific skills, banking connections, and economic differences. Former Philippine National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Secretary General Romulo A. Virola, said in 2012 that the Philippines seems unready to benefit from the integration due to its "wobbly" economic performance compared to other member states. According to Virola, the Philippines continues to lag behind in terms of employment rate, tourism, life expectancy, and cellular subscriptions. Nestor Tan, head of BDO Unibank Inc., said that while some businesses see the Asian Economic Blueprint (AEC) as an opportunity, the integration would be more of a threat to local firms. Tan added that protecting the Philippines' agricultural and financial services sectors, as well as the labour sector, would be necessary for the implementation of AEC by 2015. Standard & Poor's also believed that banks in the Philippines are not yet prepared for the tougher competition that would result from the integration. In one of its latest publications, S&P said banks in the country, although profitable and stable, operate on a much smaller scale than their counterparts in the region.

The US Chamber of Commerce has highlighted widespread concern that the much-anticipated AEC could not be launched by the 2015 deadline. In January 2014, former ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo C. Severino, wrote: "while ASEAN should not be condemned for its members' failure to make good on their commitments, any failure to deliver will likely lead to a loss of credibility and could mean that member states fall further behind in the global competition for export markets and foreign direct investment (FDI)". In 2012, the commencement of the AEC was postponed to 31 December 2015 from the original plan of 1 January. Despite Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan's firm reassurance that "here will be no more delays and that all ten ASEAN countries will participate", even the most fervent proponents of AEC worried that AEC would not be delivered on time as December 2015 neared.

An article published by Vietnam News echoed some of the challenges and opportunities that Vietnam faces in preparation for the AEC. The article said that the deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Tran Thanh Hai, was concerned about local enterprises' lack of knowledge of the AEC. It was said that 80% of local enterprises surveyed acknowledged that they have little information about the interests and challenges available for them in the ASEAN market. The article also noted that the general secretary of the Vietnam Steel Association, Chu Duc Khai, said that most of the local steel making enterprises lack information about doing business in the ASEAN market; they have not had a chance to study it, and have only exported small amounts of steel to ASEAN countries. Another challenge is the need to compete with other countries in the ASEAN market to export raw products since the country had mainly exported raw products. The Asian Development Bank also has doubts about Cambodia's ability to meet the AEC deadline. The leading economist of ADB, Jayant Menon, said that Cambodia needs to speed up its customs reform and to press ahead with automating processes to reduce trade costs and minimise the opportunities for corruption and be ready for the implementation of its National Single Window by 2015.

Despite an ASEAN Economic Community goal of significant economic integration as laid out in the AEC Blueprint 2025, ASEAN continues to face challenges towards integration. A report published by the Asian Trade Centre in 2019 identified multiple sectors that face challenges towards integration due to non-tariff barriers that still exist in the region. The report stated that the goals of the AEC 2025 would not be accomplished if ASEAN fails to address the issues of non-tariff measures and eliminate non-tariff barriers in the region.
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