The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established 8 August 1967 in Bangkok. It includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, and Brunei Darussalam (1984), Vietnam (in 1995), Laos and Myanmar (1997), Cambodia (in 1999). The status of special observer is Papua New Guinea. As the statutory purposes for the establishment of the Bangkok Declaration of ASEAN have been identified:
* The promotion of socio-economic and cultural cooperation among the countries-members of the organization; * Promoting peace and stability in South-East Asia (SEA).
The task of transforming ASEAN into one of the world's political and economic centers of a multipolar world has stimulated the regional grouping of countries to actively address a number of critical tasks. These include: the formation of a free trade zone and a zone of investment, introduction of the single currency and the establishment of extensive economic infrastructure, the formation of a special governance structure. SEA swept the 1997 monetary crisis has had serious negative political and economic implications for almost all States of the ASEAN (the least affected Singapore and Brunei), the test was determined to "dozens" to continue the policy of economic integration. However, in 1999, most countries of the Association was able to overcome the negative trends and, in general, has been achieved economic growth of about 6%.
Continued