The creation of ASEAN, one of the oldest regional blocs, dates back to 1967, when the Philippines, and Malaysia, Singapore, Asia-Thailand, five main economies of Southeast agreement. The other five members (Myanmar, Laos. Indonesia-signed an association Cambodia, Vietnam, and Brunei) have aggregated over time, until the last one, Cambodia joined in 1999 The importance of ASEAN has been growing over time, linked to the progressive growth of the economies of Southeast Asia since the early 80s, and only temporarily slowed down by the Asian crisis in the a number als with a steady interest in Asia Pacific have been selecting the region as their manufacturing base, also serving as a hub for their operations. The list of reasons for this choice and substantial. 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 work ing 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. Whilst there are still a lot of differences among member states, the main economies of the region share a tradition in terms of infrastructure, ports, and technology and some of them enjoy excellent facilities in one), which makes them an excellent choice for offshoring (Singapore is the best example, but not the only