Jahangir's World Times First Comprehensive Magazine for students/teachers of competitive exams and general readers as well.
The European Union (EU) is the world’s most well-known example of regional integration but Southeast Asia could be next to prosper into a dynamic powerhouse, as it is currently going to great lengths to boost regional trade and unite into an international economic bloc.
Southeast Asia includes countries as economically diverse as Singapore and Laos. The former is the epitome of an Asian export-led market economy while the Laotian economy has been centrally-planned since the Cold War. Laos is also classified as a Least Developed Country (LDC). Or take Vietnam and Brunei.
Vietnam, a nominally socialist republic of more than 92 million people, has a predominantly agricultural and industrial economy; Brunei is a constitutional sultanate whose approximately 416,000 people are highly dependent on export revenues from oil extraction.
These countries have been part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 1967. The bloc flaunted a 4.7 per cent average growth in 2011 and $114.1 million in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the same year, according to ASEAN indicators. Real GDP per capita grew by 94 per cent bloc-wide from 2000 to 2011, and FDI among ASEAN countries increased 30-fold in the same decade.
The economic data for this period is staggering considering the fact that it came at the heels of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. But while economic integration proceeds steadfastly, the ASEAN nations refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of one another, as ensured by the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. Differently from the EU, there is no attempt to move towards a political union with a centralised ASEAN government or parliament: political cooperation takes place through bilateral agreements among national governments and ministerial bodies.
In contrast to the EU, ASEAN countries did not have to cope with the same destruction, despair and political enmities left by the world wars in Europe, thus the aim of their regional integration is not the creation of cohesive and cooperative liberal democracies. Southeast Asian governments are markedly different from one another and they only speak to each other through the lingua franca of business, trade and finance. Hence regional integration is rapid, driven by a growing urban (predominantly of Chinese descent) middle class, political elites and international investments. Infrastructural projects are at a new high: on 15-16 May Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam signed the Savannakhet Declaration on the Process of the East-West Economic Development, which expanded the scope of the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC). The transportation corridor, which runs across mainland Southeast Asia, will boost mutual cooperation and unlock the economic potential of the inland regions.
Established on 8 August 1967 (Bangkok)
Founding Members 5
Current Members 10
Observers 2
Headquarters Jakarta, Indonesia
First Secretary General Hartono Dharsono
Current Secretary General Vietnam Le Luong Minh
Current Presidency Brunei Darussalam
The steadfastly proceeding EWEC project differs markedly from the much criticized and delayed high-speed trans-European rail network. Another symbol of European bureaucratic impasse rather than integration, the Turin-Lyon high-speed line, which is part of the high-speed rail network, was conceived between 1988 and 1991 and until now still remains a distant project.
Southeast Asia proves that regional integration is possible even among medium-size, developing, and politically unstable countries. In fact, because their economies are based on agriculture and industry–Thailand and Vietnam alone account for more than half of global rice exports–they have high development potential in the service and investment sectors. This is an important lesson for future blocs in Asia and Africa.
The ASEAN region contains some of the last frontier markets in the world such as Burma (Myanmar). The country is a pre-emerging virgin economy rich in natural resources: teak forests, precious stones, oil, natural gas, etc. Strategically located between India and China, Burmese economic potential, rather than the democratisation process, has arguably been responsible for the turnaround in relations with the US and Europe–especially since there’s been little substantial change other than the release of political prisoners and the proliferation of political parties among the ethnic Burmese majority. This may suggest that key economic blocs such as ASEAN can capitalise on their economic power to induce international political change.
Key economic blocs, such as ASEAN, can also challenge traditional understandings of geopolitics by expanding their membership. This has been the case with East Timor, Asia’s youngest country, which now seems to be one step closer to joining ASEAN after some positive developments at the 22nd ASEAN Summit.
Additionally, the ongoing process of ASEAN expansion shows that by placing more importance on trade and economic integration rather than political integration, the ASEAN countries can successfully prevent nationalist reactionism. The difference between the ASEAN experience and the EU experience, with each new state’s accession provoking nationalist sentiments and fears of cultural loss, is striking.
Despite its desirability, the ASEAN emphasis on trade and development has so far left the people of Southeast Asia behind; civil society is indifferent to the process of regional integration as it has been highly bureaucratised, centralised and streamlined. A lack of social integration or a common Southeast Asian identity may breed disaffection among the culturally diverse states in times of economic crisis.
Nevertheless, the efforts towards East-West and North-South cooperation and integration may certainly turn Southeast Asia into a dynamic and prosperous region in the decade ahead.
