The 2026-2030 ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Strategic Blueprint has the potential to drive deeper economic integration and prosperity among Southeast Asian economies, enhancing the region's resilience in facing external economic pressures.
Associate Professor of Business Economics at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, Chen Zhiming, stated that ASEAN has tremendous growth potential, and its continuously improving development levels can support the economic development of less affluent member states such as Cambodia and Laos.
“From this perspective, the regional organization has a significant chance of achieving its goal of becoming one of the world's top four economies.”
He shared this view during an exclusive interview with Bernama News Agency, when asked about ASEAN's aspiration to become the world's fourth-largest economy by 2045.
The economic blueprint endorsed by ASEAN leaders on Monday is a comprehensive roadmap, encompassing six strategic goals, 44 objectives, and 192 strategic measures.
This economic blueprint was developed through an extensive consultative process involving all ASEAN Economic Community agencies, input from other ASEAN community pillars, and consultations with 315 stakeholders from the business sector, academia, civil society, parliament, and other areas.
A regional survey was conducted, involving 7,568 respondents from ASEAN member countries and Timor-Leste.
However, Chen Zhiming also cautioned that the region should address challenges that hinder ASEAN from achieving its goals, such as focusing on the development of Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, to ensure the narrowing of economic disparities among member countries.
“ASEAN can promote economic growth by increasing intra-regional trade and investment, and enhancing the skills of the workforce across the region.”
ASEAN's total trade volume increased significantly from USD 2.3 trillion in 2015 to USD 3.8 trillion last year (1 USD is equivalent to 4.24 MYR), but intra-regional trade volume only grew from USD 500 billion to USD 800 billion during this period.