Can ASEAN rise like the EU ?

Southeast Asia, One of the most diverse, and complex regions of the world. The countries in south east asia together form the block called Association of South East asian nations, or Asean. And In the last couple of years Asean has emerged as a major economic power. This group of countries is good but it can be much better. So now the main question is, can Asean become as good as the European union?
Well let's try to find.
In 1967, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore founded the Asean  organization. The aim was to improve economic, political, and social cooperation. The motive was also promoting stability, and contain the influence of communism during the Cold War.
Then after the end of the cold war, another five countries, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar joined the Asean.
The 10 members of Asean are vastly different nations. From Indonesia with a large population to the tiny Brunei. Each country has diverse politics, religion, and economic growth. Today the Asean countries have the combined population of 647 million people. And the combined GDP of around $2.8 trillion. That puts Asean on the same level as the UK and India.
Also the group has the world's third largest work force of nearly 600 million people. And this is attracting significant foreign investments. Major attractions are Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
Now to make economic growth more rapid the group has created the Asean economic community in 2015. The end goal of this community is to create a single market which is fully integrated to the global economy. But some experts believe that creating a single market economy could increase the gap between rich and poor. As ASEAN has rich member countries like Singapore, and also poor countries like Cambodia. So creating a single market could exploit poor countries more. Big business can take a lot of advantages of an open economy creating stiff competition for small, and medium size businesses. So to do this flawlessly, and to overcome the economic challenges, Asean can really look up to the European union as an example.
The European union, and Asean share a lot of similarities. Infact both of them were founded to promote peace. The EU was founded to bring peace after two world wars through economic integration. While Asean was founded to bring peace in South-east Asia.
Another similarity is that both seek to integrate the economies of their member states into a single market platform. But the EU gives the guarantee of free movement of goods, capital, services, and labour, collectively known as the "four freedoms". Along with this EU has a single currency, and a unified foreign, and security policy.
On the other hand, the economic integration of Asean members is not that smooth. But still we can say, they are on the track to achieve it. As the Asean is constantly improving its economic integration, and the importance of borders between nations is slowly vanishing. Along with this, the Asean leaders are promoting the organization as a singular block, rather than a group of countries. Till now the Asean has achieved great things. Bur Problems are a part of any journey, and the Asean is also facing some major problems which could slowdown their economic growth.
The First major problem is China's rising influence in the region, and dispute in the south china sea. China claims almost all of the South China Sea, while four Asean nations have also claims in the region. The South China Sea is very important for the Asean countries. Because almost all economic activities need this region.
And here Asean is consistently failing to take strong, and unified action against China. Apart from this Asean is also facing climate change challenges. Rising temperature and sea levels is a huge concern for the Asean countries. Countries such as Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia are particularly more vulnerable to climate change. Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia is already sinking due to the rise of sea level. Current predictions are that, by 2050 much of the Jakarta city is going to be under water.
Things are pretty stiff for Asean. But we still believe that they could overcome the challenges, and improve its significance in the world.

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