Singapore-based ZICOlaw, a network of independent legal and related professional service providers in the ASEAN region, hosted a forum in Yangon to discuss the impending implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in less than two years.
Commentators from across the ASEAN region joined local Myanmar stakeholders to exchange views on the challenges and opportunities offered by the AEC.
Chew Seng Kok, ZICOlaw Regional Managing Partner, said: “There are challenges in realising the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and hence regional economic integration is pivotal.
“With ASEAN’s economic blueprint outlining a wide-ranging series of goals for economic integration and the urgency to act early, ZICOlaw aims to be part of this integration success for ASEAN by working with businesses in the public and private sectors.”
John Pang, senior advisor, Hakluyt & Co and former CEO of CIMB Asean Research Institute, said: “Time is running out as ASEAN is facing competition from other regions.”
ASEAN needs to institutionalise its decision-making process, dispute resolution mechanisms and try to harmonise its national laws and regulations to facilitate investments by the private sector, Tony Kinnear, managing director, ASEAN & North Asia, Thomson Reuters said.
K Kesavapany, former director, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Ong Keng Yong, Singapore High Commissioner in Malaysia and former Secretary General, ASEAN, U Moe Kyaw, managing director, Myanmar Marketing Research Development (MMRD), Raman Narayanan, executive director, AirAsia Asean, and Dr Naoko Kumada, research scholar, Urbanization Project, New York University, also spoke at the forum.
