Enhancing Asian Institutions: ASEAN's Role in Regional Integration

4 May 2009 (4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.)

Asian regionalism has made considerable progress during the last decade. Market forces have pushed for economic integration and, especially since the 1997/98 financial crisis governments have actively promoted regional cooperation initiatives. Asian economic regionalism is, however, still "institution-lite". Regional institutions are quite limited and not strong enough to face the new challenges of economic development. While Asia needs to enhance its institutional capability for regional cooperation, ASEAN is becoming a strategic force in shaping the new Asian economic architecture. Not only has ASEAN achieved legal status with the recent adoption of the Charter. Its Secretariat has expanded and strengthened, and ASEAN is becoming a major balancing factor among major powers such as the People's Republic of China, India, and Japan.

The seminar will provide an opportunity to discuss ASEAN's role in enhancing Asian institutional capabilities for regionalism. It will review the accomplishments to date towards the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, examine the issue of regional leadership, discuss lessons from the development of regional institutions outside Asia, and analyze the pivotal role ASEAN can play to strengthen the effectiveness of several regional forums, such as ASEAN+3, the East Asia Summit, APEC, and ASEM.

PROGRAM/SPEAKERS

Andrew MacIntyre
Professor, Australian National University

Rodolfo Severino
Head, ASEAN Studies Center Singapore
Presentation: Institutions for Deeper Asian and ASEAN Cooperation, Integration

Hadi Soesastro
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta
Presentation: ASEAN and Institutions for Regionalism in Asia

Xiaoyu Zhao
Vice President, Operations 1, Asian Development Bank

Moderator:
Endy Bayuni
Chief Editor, The Jakarta Post Daily

Note: All times are in GMT+08. For inquiries, e-mail: amseminars@adb.org.