114. In view of the above and to assist the Member States, aligning the sub-regions is
required to accelerate the development of ASEAN’s regional market and connectivity. The
synergies between ASEAN and the sub-regional economic programmes offer immense
potential for growth and development. Governments will use these synergies to strengthen
coordination between the ASEAN institutional processes and the sub-regional programmes.
Furthermore it will have provided ASEAN with the mandate to work closely with the subregional
platforms to initiate policy measures and develop technical assistance, and raise
these with ASEAN’s decision-makers.