International Enforcement of ASEAN Competition Law

Abstract

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is currently a developing economic centre. ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967, by five nations: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined ASEAN in January 1984, Vietnam in July 1995, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and Myanmar in July 1997, and Cambodia in April 1999. Today, ASEAN has ten member states. General information about ASEAN is outlined in Table 1, while Table 2 compares ASEAN with other economic areas. ... In 2009, the annual GDP growth rate for the ten member states of ASEAN decreased after the subprime mortgage crisis. However, since 2010, the economic outlook has been improving, as shown in Figure 1. ... Over the next few decades, the ASEAN area is set to develop into one of the world’s most important economic centres. ASEAN has achieved steady economic growth by promoting economic activities based on free trade and investment in the open economy. And it is believed that it will continue to grow in the future, especially competition law is indispensable to maintain and promote free and fair competition necessary for economic growth. The economic strength of ASEAN is based on the development and implementation of basic economics-related laws. One such development is in the field of competition law. In this paper, we focus on the international enforcement of ASEAN competition laws.