ASEAN countries need to work together to enhance the effectiveness of the ASEAN Community and to dispel the perception that is weak and ineffective in pursuing all the agenda and plans as contained in the ASEAN 2025 blueprint, said UKM Vice-Chancellor, Prof Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali.

To ensure the true integration of ASEAN, ASEAN citizens will have to consider working on all factors that will enable them to achieve the objectives of the ASEAN Community.

Prof Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Azlan, a prolific economist, elaborated on the issue in his keynote address at the ASEAN Economic Integration Forum (AEIF) 2017, at the United Nation Conference Centre, Bangkok, recently.

He said it is important to note that the ASEAN Community, including the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) aims to foster economic integration among ASEAN members and ultimately create an economy that is worth USD2.6 trillion in terms of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and aims to be the 4^th largest economy in the world.

Prof Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Azlan hope that all the participants of AEIF 2017 can discuss critically the prospect and challenges faced by the AEC and its economic and social-political impacts on the ASEAN Community as a whole.

The discourse, he believes, will not only contribute to the rich literature on ASEAN and Southeast Asia, but most importantly, it will help policy makers, the business community and other stakeholders in charting a person-centric and environmentally friendly regional economic development.

Other topics discussed during the AEIF 2017 are Empowering ASEAN Women in Business, Sustainable Development for Inclusive Growth, ASEAN Integration from the Perspective of CMLV Countries, Legal and Social Dimension of ASEAN Integration, Impact of Industrial Revolution 4.0 on ASEAN Future and Developing Inclusivity and AEC Connectivity through ASEAN Open Sky.

The AEIF 2017, is a forum jointly organized by Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS) UKM, St Antony’s College, Oxford University, World Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia & the Pacific (ESCAP) and the World Bank.