About the Webinar

Under the ASEAN Community 2025 Vision, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) aspires to be “highly integrated and cohesive”, “innovative and dynamic” while achieving enhanced connectivity and integration with the global economy. Since the implementation of the AEC 2025 Blueprint in 2016, there have been some notable accomplishments including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement in 2020 and the launch of the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) negotiations in 2023. Moreover, supply chain disruptions stemming from pandemic lockdowns, as well as economic and policy uncertainties arising from geopolitical tensions, have also brought renewed focus on strategies to strengthen economic resilience including the development of a more integrated regional financial market. Attention to sustainability and climate change issues have also been strongly emphasized, with some key initiatives introduced such as the launch of the Roadmap for ASEAN Sustainable Capital Markets and upgrades in various ASEAN-plus FTAs that better align with sustainability and climate-related objectives.

The webinar will discuss the AEC 2025 achievements, the economic integration measures and the drivers and challenges under the AEC 2045 vision, and how the AEC 2045 could facilitate more steadfast and sustainable growth of the private sector in the region.

About the Speakers

Mr Allen Ng is Group Head and Principal Economist at the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO). He leads the Regional Surveillance group, which is responsible for the annual ASEAN+3 Regional Economic Outlook and related updates. He was previously the Chief Economist of Securities Commission Malaysia (SCM), where he was also a member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions’ Committee on Emerging Risks and a board member of the Institute for Capital Market Research Malaysia. Prior to SCM, Allen was Director of Research at Khazanah Research Institute, and before that he spent more than a decade in the Central Bank of Malaysia. He has a BA and an MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Dr Ahmad Zafarullah Abdul Jalil is currently the Director of ASEAN Integration Monitoring Directorate at the ASEAN Secretariat. He oversees the systematic monitoring of the implementation and outcomes of ASEAN’s regional economic integration agenda, as well as ASEAN’s post-pandemic recovery efforts through the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework. Previously, he was a Senior Economist at the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah. Prior to joining the Islamic Development Bank, he was a Senior Manager, Economic and Market Analysis Division of the Securities Commission Malaysia and Associate Professor of Economics at Universiti Utara Malaysia. He holds a PhD in Economics from CERDI- Universite d’Auvergne, France.

Mr Raymond Yee is currently the Vice President for Customs and Regulatory Affairs for DHL Express covering Asia Pacific (excluding China). His role includes working with governments, particularly Customs and Trade agencies on various reform and modernization programmes and enhancing partnerships between DHL Express and Customs administrations from across the region. He has over 25 years’ experience dealing with Customs and Trade issues in both public and private sectors. He had served as Assistant Director for Trade Facilitation at the ASEAN Secretariat and a customs and trade consultant in PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, amongst others. Prior to joining DHL, he headed indirect tax issues for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa for an international tobacco company. Mr Yee earned a Bachelors in Economics from Cambridge University and a Masters in Economic Development (specializing in ASEAN Trade) from Oxford University.

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This webinar is hosted by ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.