Building ASEAN Economic Community: Challenges And Opportunities For Lao PDR

The Association of Southeast Asia Nation (ASEAN) was established on 8th August 1986 in Bangkok Thailand. The milestone for ASEAN Member State countries arisen at the 9th submit in Bali, the leaders of 10 countries agreed to turn ASEAN into One Community by the end of 2020 (ASEAN Vision 2020), it then in the 12th ASEAN Submit Cebu 13th January 2007 the representatives of ASEAN pledged to accelerate the One Community by the end of 2015. The SEAN Secretariat has clearly stated three pillars of One Community, which are ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) and ASEAN Social-Cultural Community (APSC).Since the declaration of becoming one community has been made, the government of Lao PDR has actively engaged in the AEC Blueprint and AEC Scorecard which adopted by the ASEAN Secretariat. Many frameworks have been conducted by the government in order to cope with the establishment of ASEAN Economic Community. Therefore, the arrival of ASEAN Economic Community has been perceived as the key challenges of the government to confront with. Nevertheless, the government sees this forming of becoming one community is a great opportunities for the nation to cope with the benefits. ASEAN Economic Community has become my attraction in examining the economy of Laos in One Community era, and especially the single market and production base. Single market and production base are comprised of five core elements, there are free flow of goods, free flow of investment, free flow of labor, free flow of services and freer of capital. Therefore, this dissertation will examine the opportunities and key challenges in building the ASEAN Economic Community and specialize in the single and production base.