ASEAN round-up

• Kevin Rudd must be delighted with this interview with Indonesia's foreign minister. It offers a bit of a counterweight to this earlier reaction, and recalls the recent AUSMIN communiqué’s welcome for “Australia’s leadership role in building a more robust community in the Asia-Pacific region through the EAS”. Singapore’s was actually an ASEAN-plus-eight proposal, and it wasn’t alone, although the Philippines has presumably since changed its tune… If the US plays a smart role in the EAS, then Australia and Indonesia will be vindicated. If it starts throwing its weight around too ostentatiously, or if future administrations lose interest, then the merits of ASEAN-plus-eight will be apparent in retrospect. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
• The liberalization of trade in services is still a hard nut to crack for the ASEAN Economic Community. In the meantime, comparatively small gestures, like an “ASEAN lane” at immigration would be both symbolic and practical.
• And amid all the difficulties of realizing economic integration, it’s good to be reminded of some fundamentals: “The ASEAN region is a fairly large economic bloc today in terms of GDP and is expected to be among the top five in the world over the next 15-20 years… A young growing population with strong income levels and low consumer debt-to-GDP are the growth drivers… The ASEAN has been one of the top performing regions from a stock market returns perspective.” Sometimes we get so obsessed with the difficulties of ASEAN the organization that we lose sight of SEA the region.