Can Malaysia shape Asean Beyond 2015?

Last month, Malaysia officially assumed the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) when the chairman’s gavel ceremoniously changed hands from Myanmar’s President Thein Sein to Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw.

The year 2015 is a significant one for the ten-member organization as it historically marks the culmination of efforts from the inception of an Asean Free Trade Area in 1992 to the realization of an Asean Economic Community (AEC) that envisions Southeast Asia as a single market and production base with free flow of goods, services and investments.