With the start of the ASEAN, Southeast Asian Nations, comprising five original Members, which are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, and joining later, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, have consolidated their efforts in building the prosperity and wealth of the nation. The economic cooperation has headed all activities, aimed toward the economic growth.

The Southeast Asian Nations have worked out a number of projects that made the economic cooperation in the region not only entail trade liberalization measures, but also facilitate other areas, such as industrial development, trade, investment, services, finance, agriculture, forestry, energy, transportation and communication, intellectual property, small and medium enterprises, and tourism. This thorough and consistent approach of the Southeast Asian Nations toward the economic cooperation has allowed the countries enjoy a strong and dynamic economic growth in the recent years. Here are a few areas of economic cooperation at a glance.

•The establishment of the Asian Free Trade Area (a complete establishment should take place by 2008) is the most significant advancement, made by the Southeast Asian Nations. This project contains a free participation of firms in Southeast Asia in the trade process, reduction of tariffs, creating a competitive production base of the Southeast Asian region in the global market, and harmonization of customs matters (tariff nomenclature, customs valuation systems, customs procedures and the establishment of a Green Lane System to help expedite clearance for CEPT products).

•The Industrial development cooperation has led to a number of significant implementations, such as the introduction of the ASEAN Industrial Projects (AIP) in 1976 that aim at ensure more efficient use of the region's resources. The AIP resulted in the establishment of the ASEAN-Acheh Fertilizer and ASEAN-Bintulu Fertilizer Plants.

•Finance and banking systems were further strengthened with the various activities and projects, one of which is the Ministerial Understanding (MU) that provides a framework for enhancing the cooperation in several areas of finance, which include banking; financial and capital markets development; customs matters; insurance matters; taxation and public finance matters; monetary policy cooperation; and human resource development in the area of finance.

•Significant developments are observed in the area of investment. The most notable achievement is the establishment the ASEAN Investment Area (AIA). The objective of the AIA is to help the ASEAN attract greater and sustainable levels of FDI flows into and within the region. This is to be achieved by undertaking collective measures that would enhance the attractiveness, competitiveness and the complementarily of the region for FDI.

The other areas of the economic cooperation, including the cooperation in food, agriculture and industry, the cooperation in tourism, the cooperation in minerals and energy, the cooperation in intellectual property, service, communication and transportation have also enjoyed considerable changes and improvements.

As a result of the integration of all economic cooperation areas and numerous sound decisions and policies, the ASEAN's total trade rose from twenty percent up to twenty five percent in three years (from 1993-1996) and exports among the Southeast Asian Nations grew from forty three point twenty six billion dollars in 1993 to almost eighty billion dollars in 1996. The Continuous growth of total trade and other sectors is observed up to now.