The Future of the ASEAN Economic Integration

Verico discusses the ASEAN economic integration from dual perspectives of time span (trade, investment and finance) and framework (bilateral, sub-regional, regional and regional plus). The work is a comprehensive study of the integration in the wake of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)'s inauguration in late 2015. Examining various economic agreement levels from the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), Bilateral Free Trade Agreement (BFTA) and the AEC to financial integration in ASEAN, Verico attempts to envisage the future of ASEAN in completing its regional economic integration from trade to investment and finance. Verico argues that, in the absence of a customs union, ASEAN must utilize the open-regionalism frameworks of the ASEAN Plus One, ASEAN Plus Three, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and others in order to shift its economic integration level in this way.

Kiki Verico is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Economics & Business, University of Indonesia (FEB UI), where he was awarded the prize for Best Young Researcher in 2015. He has published several articles in academic journals and newspapers. Among his research interests are  regional economic integration, Southeast Asian economy, ASEAN, comparative economic cooperation, international trade and Foreign Direct Investment.