ERIA Annual Report 2018: April 2018 -March 2019

Abstract

Fiscal year (FY) 2018 was the year ERIA expanded the scope of its activities as it needs to help chart the further direction of ASEAN and East Asia. This came after the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 and as it looked forward to its 10th anniversary. A review of ERIA’s deliverables for FY2018 reveals that ERIA widely expanded its field of activities to help clear the path for the economic integration and development of East Asia. One such deliverable is the ‘ASEAN Vision 2040’ project. Based on the cooperation and support of the chairs of ASEAN and the East Asia Summit, ERIA provided more than 30 themes for background papers on the prospects of ASEAN and East Asia in 2040 from political-security, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives. In this publication ERIA proposed a message of collective leadership of the East Asia region, which means strengthening ASEAN centrality for it to become the institutional hub for regional integration and economic and social development. ERIA invited many of the region’s experts and conducted several workshops with the key institutions, before submitting the integrated report to the ASEAN Foreign Minister’s Meeting of January 2019. The ministers mentioned the importance and contribution of ERIA in their ministerial statement.