ASEAN is at a critical juncture in its economic trajectory. Over the past decade, the region has made a remarkable progress in integration, stability, and growth, benefiting over 680 million people across 10 Member States. Yet, vast opportunities remain untapped— opportunities that could propel ASEAN to unprecedented levels of prosperity and influence. In today’s rapidly evolving and unpredictable global geoeconomic landscape, ASEAN’s ability to adapt, innovate, and seize these opportunities is more critical than ever. The launch of the new ASEAN Economic Community Strategic Plan is both timely and necessary, providing a bold vision to harness ASEAN’s collective strengths and chart a course towards shared and sustainable prosperity.
This new era of ambition is embodied in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Strategic Plan 2026-2030, adopted alongside ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future and the Strategic Plans of the APSC, ASCC and ASEAN Connectivity at the 46th ASEAN Summit. The AEC Strategic Plan translates ASEAN’s aspirations into actionable pathways, aiming to transform the region into a resilient, innovative, and people-centred economic powerhouse. By setting out clear goals and concrete measures, the Plan seeks to position ASEAN as the world’s fourth-largest economy, foster a seamless single market, and embed sustainability and innovation at the core of regional growth. These frameworks are designed not only to navigate current challenges but also to unlock ASEAN’s full potential for decades to come.
A practical and agile approach
The AEC Strategic Plan 2026-2030 is firmly anchored within ASEAN’s broader 20-year vision, charting a course toward 2045. While the long-term aspiration is clear, the Plan’s most distinctive feature is its commitment to agility: it is structured around rolling five-year implementation cycles. This approach empowers ASEAN to remain adaptive and responsive, recalibrating priorities and strategies as global and regional circumstances evolve. By planning in five-year increments, ASEAN can continuously align its economic integration agenda with emerging trends, risks, and opportunities, ensuring the region’s relevance and resilience in a dynamic world.
Bold and forward-looking paths
The AEC Strategic Plan is both comprehensive and action-oriented, setting out six Strategic Goals that define the region’s overarching ambitions, 44 Objectives that translate these ambitions into focused areas of action, and 192 Strategic Measures that provide concrete steps for implementation. The Plan will also be supported by a set of practical Activities, each designed to achieve tangible results aligned with the outlined aspirations. This structure enables ASEAN to unlock the immense potential of its 10 nations and their growing middle-income populations. Ultimately, this Plan is designed not merely as a blueprint, but as a direct pathway to prosperity, building on decades of hard-won economic gains.
At its core, the Plan aims to achieve meaningful integration across ASEAN. It seeks to foster an action-oriented market where businesses are genuinely empowered to thrive and scale up, supported by more predictable trade and investment procedures. In addition, the Plan aims to catalyse sustainable growth by embedding green principles across key economic sectors, including energy, agriculture, transport, minerals, tourism, and the vital oceans. At the same time, it drives the modernisation of these sectors through real-world innovation and technological transformation, all while ensuring fair markets, an enterprising intellectual property ecosystem, and greater consumer empowerment.
Furthermore, the Plan is designed to reinforce ASEAN’s standing as a trusted global partner. Internally, it strengthens the region’s capacity to withstand future challenges by enhancing supply chain resilience, improving food and energy security, fostering macroeconomic stability, and developing a future-ready workforce. Most importantly, the Plan aims to ensure that these economic benefits are broadly shared by narrowing development gaps, building stronger multi-stakeholder partnerships, and enhancing sub-regional cooperation.
Delivering promises concretely
The real test of the AEC Strategic Plan lies not just in its ambitions, but in how these are realised on the ground. Success depends on ensuring that the Plan’s significance resonates with those responsible for its implementation, fostering a sense of shared ownership and commitment. With this in mind, each Strategic Measure within the AEC Strategic Plan is thoughtfully assigned to at least one ASEAN Sectoral Body. These bodies will then secure the necessary resources, ensuring every Measure is implemented both efficiently and with genuine impact. For complex, cross-cutting issues such as the movement of people, creative economy, sustainability, or narrowing development gaps— issues that naturally extend beyond the economic domain— Sectoral Bodies from the political and socio-cultural communities were consulted, and they are on board to support their effective implementation.
Monitoring and evaluation are central to the effective implementation of the AEC Strategic Plan. This ongoing process systematically tracks progress, allowing for the early identification of bottlenecks and emerging issues so that timely and appropriate solutions can be applied. Therefore, a results-based monitoring system will be embedded to comprehensively track and evaluate the Strategic Plan. By assessing key outcome indicators linked to each objective, this process provides a clear measure of progress and ensures transparency and accountability through periodic public reporting. Importantly, the insights gained through monitoring and evaluation enable the AEC to recalibrate the Plan as necessary, ensuring that it remains aligned with evolving priorities and challenges across ASEAN and globally.
A plan that genuinely delivers is one that confidently embraces feedback as a key driver of progress. Building on extensive consultations during its development, the AEC Strategic Plan is designed to remain firmly aligned with on-the-ground realities. ASEAN will continue to actively engage with and respond to the lived experiences and perspectives of all stakeholders—from major corporations and dynamic MSMEs to innovative youth and dedicated entrepreneurs across the region. This ongoing commitment to inclusive engagement ensures that the Strategic Plan remains relevant and effective, strengthening ASEAN’s journey toward deeper and more unified economic integration.
