CIL Research Associate, Junianto James Losari spoke in the Plenary Discussion on Cooperative Ventures toward ASEAN Integration. The Plenary discussion was a part of the full day Business Law Convention held by De La Salle University College of Law in cooperation with the Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines on Doing Business in Free Trade Areas: Cooperative Ventures toward ASEAN Integration. The event, attended by almost 1,000 students, academia and business community, was meant to raise awareness about the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.

While the AEC is supposed to bring opportunities to citizens of ASEAN Members, challenges must be overcome to maximize the opportunities. One of the ways is through capacity building. In this connection, James Losari shared Singapore’s model of various cooperative ventures. He explained about CIL’s ASEAN Integration Through Law Project, a project meant to build capacity of not only Singaporeans, but also citizens of other ASEAN Member States, including government officials, academics, and business community. While integration in ASEAN has been crystallized to a limited extent by global value chains, the international economic agreements concluded by its Members are powerful instruments to strengthen the rule of law in the region and ensure that there will be no backsliding of the Members’ commitments. Through these capacity building programs, more government officials and business community will understand better their states’ rights, commitments, and obligations.