The AEC is the realization of the region’s end goal of economic integration.  It envisions ASEAN as a single market and product base, a highly competitive region, with equitable economic development, and fully integrated into the global economy.  

The history of AEC can be traced back as far as 1992 when the ASEAN Leaders mandated the creation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). Since then, efforts were intensified to broaden the region’s economic potentials.  The adoption of ASEAN Vision 2020 by the Leaders in 1997 has further envisaged ASEAN as a highly competitive region with free flow of goods, services, investments, a freer flow of capital, equitable economic development and reduced poverty and socio-economic disparities.

In 1998, the Leaders adopted the Hanoi Plan of Action (HPA). It chartered out a set of initiatives for economic integration to realize the ASEAN Vision 2020.  Recognizing the need for an integrated region, the Leaders issued the Declaration of ASEAN Concord II in 2003 which set out the establishment of ASEAN Community (initially targeted by 2020 but was later accelerated to 2015). The Declaration of ASEAN Concord II comprise of three pillars including the AEC.

The AEC Blueprint 2015 was adopted in 2007 as a coherent master plan guiding the establishment of the AEC in 2015. Immediately after that, a new AEC Blueprint 2025 was developed to set the strategic directions for the next phase of ASEAN’s economic integration agenda. The AEC Blueprint 2025 is envisaged to further deepen economic integration and achieve a more integrated economic community with the following characteristics:

• A Highly Integrated and Cohesive Economy
• A Competitive, Innovative and Dynamic ASEAN
• Enhanced Connectivity and Sectoral Cooperation
• A Resilient, Inclusive, People Oriented and People-Centered ASEAN, and
• A Global ASEAN

These characteristics support the vision for the AEC under the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.