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ABSTRACT
This article examines the role of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) as a region-wide business representative in strengthening the implementation of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2025. Despite the importance of ASEAN-BAC in regional governance, there is a dearth of literature that systematically discusses ASEAN-BAC and how it contributes to the process. To further understand the Council’s role, we interrogate official documents and reports as well as conduct interviews with officials involved with ASEAN-BAC activities. In this article, we argue that ASEAN-BAC contributes to raising the private sector’s concerns in regional processes through numerous platforms that engage ASEAN policymakers nationally and regionally. However, given its structure as a regional network, ASEAN-BAC suffers from internal incoherence in voicing its interest, given the different economic agendas of its members. Such internal incoherence reiterates the conceptualization of ASEAN regional economic integration as a fragmented regionalization.
Acknowledgement
We thank two reviewers for their comments which improve the article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Notes on contributors
Moch Faisal Karim
Moch Faisal Karim is a senior lecturer within Department of International Relations, Bina Nusantara University. His research has been published in Foreign Policy Analysis, Third World Quarterly, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Pacific Review, Asian Journal of Social Science, Journal of Current of Southeast Asia Affairs, European Journal of East Asian Studies, International Area Studies Review, and Journal of International Migration and Integration. He is currently an editor of Journal of ASEAN Studies (JAS).
Tania Quinn Heryanto
Tania Quinn Heryanto is research associate at Centre for Business and Diplomatic Studies (CBDS), Bina Nusantara University. Her research focuses on the political economy of regional integration in Southeast Asia. She can be reached at [email protected].