From its birth in 1972, ASEAN CCI’s 34 years of development have brought along in conjunction with the government sector of ASEAN numerous notable achievements of ASEAN as a region of the world, itself and of the peoples’ well being in ASEAN as well as enabling ASEAN to deepen and expand the partnerships with the rest of the world. All these can be found in the milestones of achievements which have been registered into the records during  39 years life of ASEAN history.

Collaborations extended from the ASEAN CCI to the government sector of ASEAN through SEOM, AEM and the ASEAN Summit have been well known in the past joint accomplishment of the ASEAN Industrial Projects (AIPs), the Brand-to-Brand Complementation Scheme (BBC), the ASEAN Industrial Complementation Scheme (AIC), the projects under the Basic Agreement on Industrial Joint Ventures or BAIJV, the Preferential Tariff Agreements (PTA), the Bold Initiatives and the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA). All these projects and collaborative economic exercises between ASEAN government and ASEAN CCI which represents the private sector of the entire ASEAN have done much to pave the way for the two sectors to embark on the more ambitious task of today i.e. the move to accelerate our joint endeavours for the setting up of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) targeting for completion by 2015.

To reflect the role of private sector of ASEAN which ASEAN CCI represents one can refer to the statement of H.E. Ong  Keng Yong, the ASEAN Secretary General which said, “I would like to reiterate that the ASEAN Framework Agreement for the Integration of Priority Sectors provides that ASEAN works closely with the ASEAN CCI, the ASEAN BAC and other relevant industry clubs/associations in

• trade promotion,
• promotional activities for the CLMV countries, and
• attracting foreign direct investment.

As ASEAN introduces measures to deepen economic integration, the business community is presented with various new areas for commerce and expansion. These windows of opportunity should not be neglected but harnessed to sustain ASEAN’s competitiveness.  It is in this light the business community’s collaboration becomes more and more important…”