Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Forewords to the First and Second ASEAN Reader: ASEAN: Conception and Evolution
- Forewords to the First and Second ASEAN Reader: ASEAN: The Way Ahead
- Forewords to the First and Second ASEAN Reader: New Challenges for ASEAN
- SECTION I ASEAN: THE LONG VIEW
- SECTION II COUNTRY ANALYSES
- SECTION III COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OF THE REGION
- Southeast Asian Societies
- The Southeast Asian Economy
- Southeast Asian Politics
- SECTION IV INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
- SECTION V INSTITUTIONS OF ASEAN
- SECTION VI ASSESSING ASEAN'S INTERNAL POLICIES
- ASEAN Political Security Community
- ASEAN Economic Community
- 41 Implementing the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint
- 42 Towards an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015
- 43 Understanding ASEAN's Connectivity
- 44 Enhancing the Institutional Framework for AEC Implementation
- 45 What is a Single Market? An Application to the Case of ASEAN
- 46 Non-Tariff Barriers: A Challenge to Achieving the ASEAN Economic Community
- 47 Towards a Truly Seamless Single Windows and Trade Facilitation Regime in ASEAN Beyond 2015
- 48 An Assessment of Services Sector Liberalization in ASEAN
- 49 Financial Integration Challenges in ASEAN beyond 2015
- 50 Free Flow of Skilled Labour in ASEAN
- 51 Toward a Single Aviation Market in ASEAN: Regulatory Reform and Industry Challenges
- ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community
- SECTION VII ASSESSING ASEAN'S EXTERNAL INITIATIVES
- ASEAN Processes
- ASEAN's Major Power Relations
- SECTION VIII SOUTHEAST ASIA: PERIPHERAL NO MORE
- Bibliography
- The Contributors
- The Compilers
44 - Enhancing the Institutional Framework for AEC Implementation
from ASEAN Economic Community
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 June 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Forewords to the First and Second ASEAN Reader: ASEAN: Conception and Evolution
- Forewords to the First and Second ASEAN Reader: ASEAN: The Way Ahead
- Forewords to the First and Second ASEAN Reader: New Challenges for ASEAN
- SECTION I ASEAN: THE LONG VIEW
- SECTION II COUNTRY ANALYSES
- SECTION III COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OF THE REGION
- Southeast Asian Societies
- The Southeast Asian Economy
- Southeast Asian Politics
- SECTION IV INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
- SECTION V INSTITUTIONS OF ASEAN
- SECTION VI ASSESSING ASEAN'S INTERNAL POLICIES
- ASEAN Political Security Community
- ASEAN Economic Community
- 41 Implementing the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint
- 42 Towards an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015
- 43 Understanding ASEAN's Connectivity
- 44 Enhancing the Institutional Framework for AEC Implementation
- 45 What is a Single Market? An Application to the Case of ASEAN
- 46 Non-Tariff Barriers: A Challenge to Achieving the ASEAN Economic Community
- 47 Towards a Truly Seamless Single Windows and Trade Facilitation Regime in ASEAN Beyond 2015
- 48 An Assessment of Services Sector Liberalization in ASEAN
- 49 Financial Integration Challenges in ASEAN beyond 2015
- 50 Free Flow of Skilled Labour in ASEAN
- 51 Toward a Single Aviation Market in ASEAN: Regulatory Reform and Industry Challenges
- ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community
- SECTION VII ASSESSING ASEAN'S EXTERNAL INITIATIVES
- ASEAN Processes
- ASEAN's Major Power Relations
- SECTION VIII SOUTHEAST ASIA: PERIPHERAL NO MORE
- Bibliography
- The Contributors
- The Compilers
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The institutional structure supporting the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) project remains limited. ASEAN member states are well known for resisting any form of centralized authority to manage and complete the integration process. This chapter explores how best to design regional institutions to enhance AEC implementation.
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ASEAN INTEGRATION: UNDERSTANDING ASEAN's PREFERENCE FOR FLEXIBILITY
Three features characterize ASEAN's approach to regional economic liberalization and integration, seen in both the AFTA project initiated in 1992 and the current AEC project. First, ASEAN governments have generally been forthcoming in initiating ambitious plans and programs on economic cooperation and liberalization.
Second, despite ambitious commitments, implementation of these commitments has faced problems, with member governments sometimes failing to meet set targets and/or ignoring them, asking for revisions to original targets and/or seeking exemptions from them. Third, ASEAN governments have always preferred relative limited institutional structures that in the end are unable to impose stronger discipline on member governments to adhere to the commitments, action plans and timelines to which they themselves earlier agreed.
The interplay between external com-petitive pressures and domestic factors in shaping the evolution of AFTA and the AEC provides valuable lessons for this chapter. For instance, both AFTA and the AEC were initiated by ASEAN governments, which saw in these two projects the chance to secure national economic growth by enhancing the competitiveness of the ASEAN region as a whole, particularly as a site for investment.
However, these same governments were also constrained in how far and how fast they could commit to regional integration, because they had to take into account domestic socio-economic and socio-political priorities, including domestic business demands for exemptions from regional liberalization schedules.
INSTITUTIONS FOR INTEGRATION: THEORETICAL INSIGHTS AND THE ASEAN EXPERIENCE
Institutions can very simply be defined as governance arrangements comprising sets of norms, rules, procedures, and organizational structures that aid collective action. Depend-ing on their design, institutions can aid implementation of integration commitments. This can occur through ensuring that clearly defined commitments are agreed upon and effectively monitored, so that instances of noncompliance can be addressed while the propensity for non-compliance reduced either through reputational effects or material costs. The report of ADB's flagship study on Institutions for Regional Integration identifies decision-making rules and a set of various “commitment devices” to be especially helpful aid to implementation.
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- The 3rd ASEAN Reader , pp. 231 - 236Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak InstitutePrint publication year: 2015