ASEAN’s aspirations to create a highly cohesive and integrated economic region are outlined in its ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint, which remains the primary multilateral project dealing with economic cooperation in the region. First adopted in 2015, the blueprint has faced significant deterrents and challenges, the most primary one being the COVID-19 pandemic, which has created a need for revisiting and even revising certain policies.

The 2025 Blueprint builds on the achievements of its earlier counterpart, with a stronger emphasis on sustainable development, e-commerce, and digital transformation. The five key pillars of the ASEAN Economic Community Vision 2025 outline a desire for:

A highly integrated and cohesive economy, which incorporates an increase in intra-ASEAN trade; a competitive, dynamic ASEAN, focusing on establishing a competitive and resilient economic environment; enhanced connectivity and sectoral cooperation, which includes but is not limited to, connectivity across transport networks, E-commerce, and information technology; a resilient, inclusive, people-centred, and people-oriented ASEAN, focusing on making businesses more resilient and competitive, and finally, a global ASEAN, which out-lines the Blueprint’s visions to place ASEAN as a prominent global player, integrated into the global economy and actively participating in international economic dialogues.

With a market size of $2.3 trillion and 600 million people, AEC aims to achieve a single incorporated market through the process of regional economic integration. Although admirable in its vision and targeted in its approach, there are key areas of concern that need to be addressed. At the forefront is the risk of unequal distribution of wealth. With development gaps wide between member states and for states to have a greater propensity to be introverted than to have a regional outlook, integration will require more than bold statements or grand plans.

A large part of realising ASEAN’s economic vision will rest on how far member states commit to the shared goals beyond national development. There is also a need for greater investment in human capital. Upskilling labour will require member states to provide training and capacity-building opportunities to lessen the labour development gaps. Included in this is the broadening of digital skills as outlined in the ASEAN Digital Integration Framework. This would be especially potent for digital literacy and the use of Artificial Intelligence or AI in various sectors including in Education and in Manufacturing. Such action will indicate a genuine investment in AEC’s vision for the region’s economic development.

It is equally important that we bring to the forefront the negligible discussion on human rights within the AEC, including labour rights and women’s economic rights. Development gaps and inequalities cannot be brought down when there are varying, uneven, or even non-existent strategies that look at labour rights, women’s rights and the rights of certain communities, including rural communities in the region. For example, the aspiration for greater digital access and transformation will have to consider wide connectivity and digital accessibility. Technology and innovation do not necessarily have deep in roads into all member states. While steps are being taken to increase connectivity, the speed and commitment to this has to match global changes if the region is to ‘keep up’ and be plugged in to global infrastructure and networks.

With sustainable production and consumption as key objectives, all three of the ASEAN communities [together with the AEC, the ASEAN Political and Security Community (APSC) and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC)] need to strongly consider the integration and coordination of activities under their respective aegides. For example, where the environment and disaster management are handled by the ASCC, industries like energy and agriculture, which contribute higher emissions, directly affecting the environment and climate, are managed by the AEC. An important step would be to integrate the frameworks of different sectors/actors of ASEAN as well and remove siloed mentalities. If one sector focuses on humanitarian relief and disaster management in the light of new climate scenarios without considering high emission industries that contribute to climate change in another, how effective would strategies in each respective sector be? Yet another example is about creating a more integrated digital ecosystem. If what is happening in the socio-cultural space is not understood by those creating economic and security networks in digital space to advance economic integration, attempts to reach wider markets and greater connectivity will be marred by inherent inequalities of access, education, freedom, and security. For any of these strategies to be effective, there needs to be cross-sectoral discussions to ensure that all ‘blind spots’ are addressed. This is vital for regional economic development and growth.

ASEAN’s competitive strength lies in the ‘extent of its regional connectivity,’: physical connectivity, institutional connectivity, and people-to-people connectivity. This is also what provides the region with leverage, especially when faced with regional or global powers. To realise the goals outlined in ASEAN’s vision 2025, member states must invest more in it, including a greater internalisation of sustainability and resilience across all of ASEAN’s sectors and approaches. At the end of the day, it must not be us who unwittingly obstruct our aims in accomplishing what is stated in our vision for our future.