It has always been my cherished belief that if ASEAN succeeds, it will bring about positive consequences for ASEAN and the entire global community.

The ASEAN Economic Community is one of the three pillars of the envisaged ASEAN Community by 2015, which also comprises the ASEAN Political-Security Community and the ASEAN Socio- Cultural Community. Using the analogy of interlocking threads which hold a piece of fabric together, building an ASEAN Economic Community that provides economic stability and ensures continued economic growth will contribute towards peace, security and social progress, and thereby connect the region together.

ASEAN is weaving this piece of fabric based on the design of the ASEAN Charter and the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community (2009–2015). This book Realizing the ASEAN Economic Community: A Comprehensive Assessment attempts to communicate potentials, opportunities and challenges of community building to our people. It brings the vision of an ASEAN Economic Community to life by expressing it in concrete terms so that stakeholders such as the private sector and the consumers can identify with it and see the impacts that it can potentially make. More importantly, I hope that each stakeholder will assist in weaving this tapestry of the ASEAN Economic Community together.

For this, I am grateful to the US Agency for International Development and the US Department of State sponsored ASEAN-US Technical Assistance and Training Facility, and the various contributors who responded to the ASEAN Secretariat's request and made this book possible. This book reveals that the ASEAN Economic Community, if realized, will bring about an increase in economic welfare and real income in ASEAN and all member states will stand to benefit. While regional economic integration can create short-term adjustment costs, these costs should be more than offset by the benefits generated by well-targeted reforms in the longer term.

I hope that this book will strengthen our conviction that the ASEAN Economic Community will bring about a more prosperous, stable, competitive and equitable ASEAN.