The Declaration on the AEC Blueprint stipulates that, “each ASEAN Member Country shall abide by and implement the AEC by 2015.” Concerned Ministers were tasked, with assistance from the ASEAN Secretariat, to implement the AEC Blueprint
and report regularly on the progress of its implementation to the Council of the AEC.
The AEC Blueprint is a very significant development milestone in ASEAN, as an
organization, in general, and in its specific efforts to deepen regional economic
integration. The AEC Blueprint is a clear departure from ASEAN’s tradition since it
has never devised a blueprint before to achieving its objectives. The process of regional
cooperation and ‘regional community building’ in
the past had been left open-ended. It
has been driven by the dynamics of the proces
s itself that oftentimes had been dictated
by the slowest mover. ASEAN remains a volunt
ary organization at large, with decisions
being mostly non-binding in na
ture. There is a serious la
ck of capacity in ASEAN to
enforce its decisions either at the regional or
at the national level. Many of its past
initiatives had been implemented disappointingly slow.