ASEAN has come a long way since its birth on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand. ASEAN has grown into a vibrant and increasingly integrated economic region, an increasingly stronger socio-cultural community, and a significant force in East Asia’s regional political–security and economic relations. On the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and ...

Over the course of ASEAN’s 50 years of existence, the ASEAN region has been transformed from a relatively poor region in the 1960s into a robustly growing region of middle-income to high-income countries. The ASEAN Member States (AMSs) have transitioned from being largely exporters of primary products into regional and global exporters of commodities, manufactures, and services. The region has ...

The year 2017 marks 50 years since the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed under the Bangkok Declaration on 8 August 1967. The five founding members, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, envisioned political and economic cooperation that would promote stability and prosperity for each country and ultimately a sense of shared culture and identity for ...