The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also established a formal community that attempts to create freer movement of trade and capital in an area of 625 million people with a combined economic output of 2.6 trillion U.S. dollars.
The community declaration was signed by leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian nations or ASEAN in Kuala Lumpur, this year’s host of the group’s annual summit.
The ASEAN community includes a political, security and socio-cultural dimension in a region with governments ranging from communist in Vietnam and quasi-military in Myanmar to the kingdom of Brunei and the boisterous democracy of the Philippines.
However, it is the economic community that offers the most concrete opportunities for integration in a region that’s combined gross domestic product (GDP) would make it the world’s seventh-largest economy.
Said declaration was signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which was attended by President Benigno S. Aquino III.
(Eagle News Service Video Described by Jay Paul Carlos, Video Editing by Jericho Morales, Uploaded by MRFaith Bonalos, ASEAN In Focus)