SE Asia bangs the drum for single market

KUALA LUMPUR: Southeast Asian leaders on Sunday symbolically declared the establishment by year-end of an EU-style regional economic bloc, but diplomats admitted it will be years before the vision of a single market can be realized.

At the group’s annual summit, held this year in Kuala Lumpur, the heads of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) signed a declaration that the bloc hailed as “a milestone in the integration process.”