Recognising the importance of services for economic growth and job creation and an ambitious regional integration program that includes services, a recent research to inform policy maker on ASEAN Integration Services was jointly conducted by ASEAN Integration Monitoring Office of ASEAN Secretariat in cooperation with the World Bank. The Report takes stocks of the status of services reforms and integration, the achievements made by AMS and way forward recommendations.
As an effort to form a shared understanding of challenges and emerging trends on services trade and integration issues among policy makers and officials and other relevant stakeholders, on 18 – 19 June 2015 a meeting titled ASEAN Services Forum on Regional Integration of Services in ASEAN Countries: Progress and Challenges was held at ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta, Indonesia. The forum, jointly hosted by the ASEAN Secretariat, Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), and the World Bank, with the support from the ASEAN-Australia Development Cooperation Program Phase II (AADCPII) presented and discussed the findings of the joint publication ASEAN Secretariat-World Bank ASEAN Services Integration Report (ASIR) as the main material for the discussion.
The forum was attended by ASEAN policy makers and relevant stakeholders in the region such as representatives from Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysia, Ministry of Planning and Investment of Viet Nam, The Malaysian Central Bank, the Philippines Civil Aeronautics Board, and Indonesia Services Dialogue. Prominent services experts in the region and beyond such as Asian Development Bank Institute, the World Bank, Centre for International Trade and Investment (CITI), the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) and Australia-Indonesia Partnership on Economic Governance (AIPEG) participated in the forum.