Political-Security Community
To build on what has been constructed over the years in the field of political and security cooperation, the ASEAN Leaders have agreed to establish the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC). The APSC shall aim to ensure that countries in the region live at peace with one another and with the world in a just, democratic and harmonious environment.
The members of the Community pledge to rely exclusively on peaceful processes in the settlement of intra-regional differences and regard their security as fundamentally linked to one another and bound by geographic location, common vision and objectives.
Economic Community
The AEC is the realization of the region’s end goal of economic integration. It envisions ASEAN as a single market and product base, a highly competitive region, with equitable economic development, and fully integrated into the global economy.The history of AEC can be traced back as far as 1992 when the ASEAN Leaders mandated the creation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).
Since then, efforts were intensified to broaden the region’s economic potentials. The adoption of ASEAN Vision 2020 by the Leaders in 1997 has further envisaged ASEAN as a highly competitive region with free flow of goods, services, investments, a freer flow of capital, equitable economic development and reduced poverty and socio-economic disparities.
