Accelerating regional integration post Covid-19

A TV screen in Hanoi showing economic ministers attending an online meeting on June 4, 2020. Asean’s economic ministers and their Chinese, South Korean and Japanese counterparts held the special online meeting to address challenges and actions for economic cooperations in the context of Covid-19. — AP

There is a need for regional integration to accelerate and deepen post-Covid-19, as embodied in the Asean Economic Community (AEC). The pandemic’s highly disruptive effect on global and regional economies has highlighted the case for a more integrated and cohesive Asean through AEC as the primary vehicle.

Asean is not a political let alone economic union like the European Union (EU). There is no need to aim that high, but aim we must towards fulfilling the vision of the AEC premised upon the free flow of goods and services, investment, capital, and skilled labour, revolving around one production base. The push for accelerating regional integration now couldn’t be stronger, with the goal of an economically inter-linked, multilaterally-dependent, highly converged Asean within the framework of the AEC by 2025, which is only five years away, as outlined in its blueprint.