AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area) and Vietnam

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The main purpose of this research project was to investIgate recent remarkable development of the ASEAN economic co-operation and to draw some important lessons from it for other economic co-operation among developing countries because ASEAN has a very good reputation as a successful example of it. We may characterize the recent ASEAN economic co-operation as "Enlargement" and "Deepening" "Enlargement" means the increase of member countries from ASEAN6 (Brunel, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) to "ASBAN 10" that is, the four Indochina countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanrnar and Vietnam are welcomed to joint it, and "Deepening" means to introduce some new economic co-operation schemes like AFTA(1992), AICO(ASEAN Industrial Co-operation, 1996), AIA(ASEAN Investment Area, 1998) and so on. I originally tried to focus on the relation between AETA(ASEAN Free Trade Area) and Vietnam that represented the above-mentioned "Enlargement" and "Deepening" of the ASEAN economic co-operation. I am, however, obliged to change my original research plan a bit because the Asian currency crisis broke out in 1997 and it has seriously affected the ASEAN economic co-operation. So, I have completed my research report that has the two following chapters ; The first chapter deals with causes, consequences and policy implications ot the Asian currency crisis. In this chapter, I emphasize the so-called "EOI(Export-Oriented Industrialization" policy that the ASEAN6 and Vietnam have adopted as their development model has its own limitations. The Sixth ASEAN Summit at Hanoi, Vietnam in December 1998 presented the new counter-plan (the "Bold Plans") to cope with the Asian currency crisis, In the second chapter, I analyze the "Bold Plans" that show the future prospects of the ASEAN economic co-operation.