Sustaining the Momentum Beyond 2015

In response to and support of the call first made by Indonesian President, H.E. Dr. Yudhoyono, during the opening of the 18th ASEAN Summit in Jakarta in May 2011 to start the "•successful discussion on what ASEAN would be beyond 2015 and how to achieve such vision"– and also to the Declaration of the ASEAN Leaders to develop an ASEAN Community‘s post-2015 vision and its elements…"–, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) embarked on a major undertaking in 2012 which looked into various areas related to ASEAN and AEC beyond 2015. Tapping a large number of experts and specialists mainly from the ASEAN region to prepare some 40 thought or issues papers on these areas, the nearly year-long study has now been completed and put together into a report titled ASEAN Rising: Moving ASEAN and AEC Forward Beyond 2015. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) post 2015, ERIA Senior Policy Coordinator, Mr. Yoshifumi Fukunaga pointed out that in working toward the conclusion of the RCEP as a new regional free trade agreement in 2015, negotiators should aim for, among others, the deepening of liberalization commitments, adoption of a "•common concession"– approach in the various tariff commitments, introduction of concrete trade facilitation programs, and commitments to liberalize trade in services at a high level. Finally, Dr. Erlinda Medalla, Senior Research Fellow at PIDS, noted that the main story of the various presentations is that countries have become closely inter-related and mutually affected by each other‘s performance. Hence, there is no other way but for countries to increasingly cooperate. For this, we need to have a strengthened ASEAN,"– she said.