With the ASEAN governments increasingly calling on the region's private sector to play its part in regional economic integration, the weightage of the role of the business community has become intrinsic to ASEAN's economic aspirations. As a result, the ASEAN private sector is made more conscious of its place in the process of regional economic integration. However, a certain tension arises from the divergence between ASEAN's economic aspirations and the private sector's experience of those aspirations. At the local level, public-private sector partnership in the respective ASEAN countries varies in its degree of intensity.

A perspective on the role of the Singapore private sector in ASEAN economic integration serves to provide an indication of its involvement. In this context, consideration is given to the effectiveness of ASEAN economic agreements as perceived by the business community, their impact on trade and investment decisions, and prospects for achieving the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.

The Singapore Business Federation

The scope of the topic is to be defined to set the framework of discussion. For the purpose of the perspective being delineated, the Singapore private sector will be taken to mean the private sector which is institutionalized at the apex level across domestic ethnic lines, across foreign business groups, and across industry sectors. Such a definition is realized in the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), the apex business chamber in Singapore.

The vision of the SBF, established in 2002, is to be the voice of the Singapore business community locally and to the world, creating business value for its members. Its mission is to act as the bridge between the government and business in Singapore to create and enhance a conducive business environment. SBF represents the business community in bilateral, regional, and multilateral forums for the purpose of promoting trade expansion and business networking. It represents more than 18,000 companies, as well as the local and foreign business chambers, the key national and industry associations from business sectors that contribute significantly to the Singapore economy.