The AEC development has been critic

The AEC development has been criticized for being "too slow" and some observers have said that the issues that have been delayed were those of importance and could make or break the success of the integration. Some specialists also commented about the lack of leadership on this issue - the role of Asean chairmanship is a rotating position and a series of officials from the poorer, less developed Asean countries will be the chair of Asean for the next few years which means that leadership will be inexperienced and possibly be less interested in pushing ahead quickly with integration on all fronts. Furthermore, Asean will suffer the departure of a strong leader as the current Asean Secretary General, Thai diplomat Surin Pitsuwan, is completing his 5-year term as Asean Secretary-General this year. As an experienced diplomat Surin Pitsuwan and prior to him the equally experienced Ong Keng Yong from Singapore have pushed ahead on integration. Some observers note that the less experienced officials from poorer and less developed Asean countries set to follow them will not have the same leadership skills, experience or knowledge and that this will tell on future progre