HISTORY
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by the five original Member Countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
Brunei Darussalam joined on 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999.
The ASEAN region has a population of about 500 million, a total area of 4.5 million square kilometers, a combined gross domestic product of almost US$ 700 billion, and a total trade of about US$ 850 billion.
More information on ASEAN can be found at the ASEAN Internet homepage and a quick overview and information about each member country can be found here.
ADVANTAGES OF WORKING WITH ASEAN
ASEAN sits at the crossroads of two major civilisations in the world - the Chinese and the Indians. Singapore sits in the middle of ASEAN and has traditionally acted as the trading or marketing hub for most of the countries of ASEAN, China (pre 1990s) and India. These facts are long established, recognized and supported by all the countries.
In fact in Nov 2000, China's then Premier Zhu RongJi suggested at an ASEAN meeting that an ASEAN-CHINA Free Trade Zone be set up to ease the region's unease from China joining the WTO. Not to be outdone, at the same meeting, the then South Korean President Kim DaeJung went even further to suggest that an ASEAN-NorthEast ASIA grouping be formed to facilitate trade.
The interesting point to all these is that many of these countries have yet to engage in either Free Trade Agreement (FTA) or Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) amongst themselves.
The significance of these suggestions is that each country recognizes the need to integrate with ASEAN, principally Singapore, to take advantage of the financial, commercial and trading infrastructure and expertise built up over the centuries.
For countries looking to trade with China, India and South Korea, Singapore is a major liaison point; facilitating contacts, suppliers, sourcing and even financial support.
And this is why we at Asian Business Services are offering our services as sourcing agents and business facilitators to help companies from both Europe and Asia trade with one another.
OPPORTUNITIES IN ASEAN
Any reader interested to know about the business opportunities or other items presented could for details. | 
