November 10th, 2008 |
ewdialogue
October 21, 2008 via East-West Wire
By Michael Plummer
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ agreement to create a unified market by 2015 is an extremely ambitious project, going well beyond anything that ASEAN has ever done in the past. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) would establish free flows of goods, services and foreign direct investment, as well as freer skilled labor and cross-border capital flows.
To be successful, it will require a tremendous amount of political backing from both internal and external sources. It is clearly in the interest of the United States to support this process for at least three major reasons.
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August 15th, 2008 |
ewdialogue
We’ve done some reorganizing here at East-West Dialogue and the articles and commentaries on East-West Dialogue’s first topic — Renewing the Pacific Partnership — have been moved.
You can find them here.
July 9th, 2008 |
ewdialogue
What’s on offer for ASEAN-U.S. cooperation under ASEAN’s Blueprint for an ASEAN Economic Community?
In the next issue of the East-West Dialogue, How (and Why) the United States Should Help to Build the ASEAN Economic Community, Michael Plummer (EWC and Johns Hopkins University) calls for ambitious new initiatives, leading to a U.S.-ASEAN Economic Space and a U.S.-ASEAN Partnership Fund to deepen civic and cultural ties. These ideas are expanded in commentaries by Surin Pitsuwan (Secretary General of ASEAN), Scot Marciel (U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN), Kishore Mahbubani (former Singapore ambassador to the UN) , and Chalongphob Sussangkorn (former Thai Minister of Finance).
Plummer argues that ASEAN is so important to US economic diplomacy that it deserves special attention. A successful ASEAN economy of 585 million people will strengthen, balance, and stabilize the economic architecture of the Asia Pacific region. The commentators agree the relationship is vital. They offer further suggestions and confirm that gains from a deeper partnership are mutual and that the region is receptive to US initiatives.
Update 12 Aug 2008 - Surin Pitsuwan was unfortunately not able to contribute commentary to this issue.
East-West Dialogue, a project of the East-West Center, fosters discussion and debate of key issues in Asia-U.S. economic relations. The Dialogue seeks to develop and promote innovative policy, business, and civic initiatives to enhance this critical partnership.
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