The Prospects for Further Economic Integration in ASEAN

The Prospects for Further Economic Integration in ASEAN

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN), which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 1997, has enjoyed remarkable success as a forum for political cooperation among the states of Southeast Asia. The challenge for ASEAN now is to replicate its political success in the sphere of economic cooperation, where it has had much less success up to now. The main goal of our paper is to investigate the likelihood that ASEAN can, in fact, become an engine of greater economic integration among the countries of Southeast Asia. In particular, we explore the future prospects for AFTA, the regional free trade area. (JEL Classifications: F15, F14, F02)