Secretary-General Says Asean to Delay Start of Economic Union
The plan to create an economic union in the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will likely see a delay of a year, Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said at the meeting of the bloc’s energy ministers in Phnom Penh. During the meeting, Mr. Surin said the start date for the economic community-previously agred for January 1, 2015- would probably be changed at the request of countries’ economic ministers. … Subject to the agreement of Asean leaders in November, the date would now be moved to December 31, 2015, Mr. Surin said. Mr. Surin added that Asean’s Economic Community Council “also realized that we need to do stocktaking on the implementation of our blueprint for the Asean economic community.” …
