the area is currently a market of 617 million people [about 10 percent of the world population] , with a global GDP projected to reach US$4.7 trillion in 2020 [approximately japan's level of today] and a share of world trade of about 7 percent. ASEAN has been working towards creating an East Asian Community [EAC] by the end of 2015, by integrating into a single and coherent market the 10 economies that up to now have been functioning at different speeds.