VietJet, a low-cost Vietnamese airline, is fast spreading its wings and wants to fly all over Asean, using colors of bold red, albeit with a touch of yellow, made all too familiar by AirAsia.

China has a huge infrastructure development agenda in Asean, through the AIIB and One-belt, One-road initiatives, and through financing commitments in more focused areas such as the Mekong sub-region, the most recent, in March, being US$11.5bil in loans and credit for infrastructure under the Mekong-Lancang Co-operation framework.

Japanese companies are all over the region, Toyota’s and Honda’s automobile hubs in Thailand being quite impressively well placed to take advantage of the free movement of the supply of parts under the AseanEconomic Community (AEC), of the growing market of 630 million (the third largest in the world), and of the single market and production base to export worldwide.

This is Asean. That frequently cited combined GDP of US$2.6 trillion, seventh largest economy in the world, poised to become the third largest, after only China and India, in 2030 or just after.

Across the region, pro-active companies from within and outside Asean, from a range of businesses, traditional and conventional, digital and new world economy, are on the move to realise value from its growth and potential.

There are gaps and gaping holes in the integration process, including in the AEC and in socio-economic and political development, but a company or business would be left behind if it just dwelt on them.

Many Malaysian companies are of course in Asean and trading with Asean countries, in the financial services sector, in legal services, oil and gas, power, manufacturing and other businesses. However, there are also others who are not engaged and only have many complaints about the AEC’s imperfections.

Many of these complaints are not misplaced. However, in business you cannot wait for the perfect circumstances before you move.

You wait and you lose all the first mover advantages. You wait and you don’t develop relationships, and it will be too late and take too long to cultivate them when the time is ripe. You take risks, calculated against potential benefits.

A bakery venturing into a rice-eating country, only just now coming out of the economic dark ages, is not something without risk. But a calculation that the mostly young people in the population of 52 million will form the basis of a growing future sophisticated demand counterbalances it.

Political change is taking place in Myanmar. It is early days. There is no clear succession plan after Aung San Suu Kyi.

But is the change not irreversible? Will economic empowerment and the spread of its benefit not act as a check against any reversal?

And, coming back to the region as a whole, will not the imperfections and weaknesses of the AEC be addressed over time?

Indeed they are being addressed. As Asean Business Advisory Council (Asean-BAC) chair last year, we worked very hard to obtain explicit recognition of the private sector role in the Asean integration process, and a hard-wiring of the collaboration in that process, rather than just top-end picture opportunity dialogues with leaders and ministers.

As a result, the AEC 2025 Blueprint made extensive mention of the role Asean-BAC is expected to play, in association with other Asean and non-Asean private sector councils, representatives and interested sectoral expert bodies. There are actually 19 such councils and at least 66 sectoral expert bodies.

Asean-BAC is already working to ensure effective representation of views in a coordinated manner to the leaders, ministers and officials.

Perhaps, more importantly, Asean-BAC is identifying expert resources who can make their contribution in official Asean committees and working groups in sectors and areas of concern. This bottom-up work is perhaps more important than the big-ticket dialogues whose outcomes are often diffused and dissipated.

Therefore, working both top-down and bottom-up, Asean-BAC and all associated private sector groups will achieve better outcomes to address AEC shortcomings and imperfections.

For example, in the vexed area of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) there is an understanding with officials to prioritise their removal in four sectors: agri-food, healthcare, logistics and retail (including e-commerce). The Asean Co-ordinating Committee on NTBs has to set up the four working groups to get cracking.

As another example, the proposal by the Asean Business Club to have a private sector Financial Services and Capital Markets expert group work with the Asean secretariat could be adapted to have the experts work in the relevant committee or working group for faster financial sector integration.

All this takes painstaking work not always compensated by desired progress. There will be frustrations, even recriminations.

But it has to be done. The private sector must be committed and involved, even as they complain about the many shortfalls of the AEC.

Having said all this, it does not mean companies should sit on their hands and just wait and see. Those who have not made their Asean move should really ponder on what they would be missing and on why those who have, have done so.

Everyone is operating in the same Asean, warts and all. Those who are still waiting could very well miss out.

Indeed their very business will be threatened as markets become more open and competitive with a more integrated AEC – something which, ironically, they are waiting for.

Munir Majid, chairman of Bank Muamalat and visiting senior fellow at LSE Ideas (Centre for International Affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy), is also chairman of CIMB Asean Research Institute.

“The one place in the world that will feel the brunt of this competition will be Asean,” he said yesterday.

Prof Mahbubani was one of four speakers at the half-day public session of the 11th China-Singapore Forum discussing the past, present and future of Asean-China relations.

“Asean is one of the most underrated organisations in the whole world,” he told an audience of about 100 academics, diplomats and researchers at the Shangri-La Hotel.

It has not only brought peace to “a very difficult and diverse region”, but also spread the culture of peace across a much wider swathe of Asia, he added.

Dr Su Hao, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, asked Prof Mahbubani if China and countries in the region could try to resolve issues among themselves without involving external powers.

“The question is, ’Is the US an external power or an internal power?’ Because the US declares itself to be an Asia-Pacific power,” Prof Mahbubani said.

He pointed out that there was a convergence of interest between the US and China in keeping global maritime routes open.

“It is not in China’s interest to prevent freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, because others may use it as an excuse in other parts of the world.”

Another speaker at the forum, Professor Zhai Kun from Peking University’s School of International Studies, made several recommendations on how China and Asean can cooperate going forward.

He suggested China, the US and Asean could make use of the East Asia Summit framework to discuss the construction of a strategic order for the future.

The East Asia Summit is an annual gathering of leaders from 18 countries: the 10 Asean states, China, the US, Russia, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The two-day China-Singapore Forum, which ended yesterday, was jointly organised by the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs and the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute.

“That is our hope,” he said when asked if the next Philippine President should push for bilateral talks with China, “because China has always been open for bilateral negotiations with the Philippines.”

“Bilateral negotiations (on South China Sea) should focus on areas that can benefit the two countries. We’re open for a peaceful, binding and durable bilateral agreement,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the European Union National Day at the Dusit Hotel in Makati City on Thursday night.

The Philippines is electing a new leader on Monday.

Three island groups are at the center of dispute between China and the Philippines, including the Spratlys, a chain of up to 190 islands, reefs, coral outcrops and banks believed to be sitting atop large deposits of oil and natural gas.

China claims almost all of the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of maritime trade passes each year. The Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims.

China’s increasingly assertive moves in the waters, including building artificial islands and airports, have rattled nerves around the world.

Zhao said the Chinese government has been monitoring policy statements by presidential candidates on the issue of addressing the territorial dispute. He stressed that China does not interfere in the domestic affairs of the Philippines.

“But whoever wins (in the presidential elections) we hope that he or she can improve or work toward better relations … We want to have a new chapter in the bilateral relations between China and the Philippines,” he said.

Zhao said the new chapter of bilateral relations should focus “on common interests” such as economic, financial and trade cooperation, promotion of tourism and people to people cooperation.

President Benigno Aquino III held talks with Xi at the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit in 2014 in Beijing.

Zhao said there was no “conflict” between the two countries. He said Beijing had always been open to bilateral and multilateral settlement of disputes with claimant-countries.

Aquino has always underlined the Philippines’ multilateral approach to the row during Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summits.

Zhao said China was involved in the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) signed by China and the Asean.

“China is also seriously discussing the fundamentals of a binding code of conduct with Aseancountries,” the ambassador said.

Asean has been pushing for a code of conduct that would replace the DOC, a 2002 non-aggression pact that has failed to stop clashes in the international waterway. China has argued that the time wasn’t ripe yet for this.

Foreign Undersecretary Linglingay Lacanlale, in a speech at the EU National Day, highlighted the strong partnership between the Philippines and EU, particularly on Manila’s arbitration case against China’s territorial claim to the sea.

“The dynamism (of Philippines-EU relations) is reflected in our shared commitment to pursue peaceful and durable solutions to pressing concerns such as EU’s principled position for a rules-based and peaceful settlement of disputes in the West Philippine Sea/South China Sea, its deep engagement with the Philippines and Asean,” she said.

China has been stepping up its rhetoric ahead of a ruling expected in a few weeks by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on a case the Philippines has brought against China’s claims in the South China Sea.

The ruling is widely expected to favor the Philippines and risks significantly raising regional tensions because China rejects the court’s authority to hear the case, even though it is a signatory of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea under which it is being heard.

“Under President Aquino’s administration, the Philippines has been transformed from a ‘Pussycat to a Tiger economy.’ The next Philippines government will face the task of sustaining rapid economic growth in order to lift living standards and reduce still high levels of poverty, particularly in rural regions,” said IHS Asia-Pacific chief economist Rajiv Biswas.

In a research note, Biswas stressed the need of continuing with economic reforms and strengthening institutional governance to sustain a growth of 6 per cent yearly from 2016 to 2020. The total size of the Philippine economy is likewise projected to grow from US$300 billion in 2016 to $700 billion by 2025, becoming a trillion dollar economy in US dollar terms by 2030.

“This will make the Philippines one of the leading emerging markets in Asia,” he added.

However, a key priority for the next government will need to be about improving the business climate for investors. At present, the Philippines is ranked 103 out of 189 countries on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking for 2016.

“Although the Philippines has lifted its position significantly on this ranking under President Aquino, from 136th in 2012 to 103rd in 2016, the ranking of the Philippines is still far below some other Southeast Asian economies, notably Singapore, which is ranked first globally; Malaysia which is ranked 18th; and Thailand which is ranked 49th,” Biswas said.

“Improving the business environment for foreign investment into manufacturing and infrastructure will be a critical challenge for the incoming Philippine government administration, in order to boost manufacturing exports and employment,” he explained.

One of the more important economic priorities for the next government, according to Biswas, will be to tackle the high level of poverty that still persists in the Philippines.

He noted that an estimated 25.8 per cent of the total population of the Philippines still live below the poverty line, and this ratio has only declined very gradually from a rate of 28.8 per cent in 2006. Rural poverty in some regions is a key public policy challenge.

These problems have been aggravated by current dry weather conditions due to the El Niño phenomenon, which have resulted in severe droughts in parts of the southern Philippines, resulting in food shortages and severe hardship for the rural population in some areas. Agricultural production also fell by 1 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2015, mainly due to El Niño and the impact of typhoon-related crop damage.

“Therefore, ensuring that the benefits of rapid economic growth do reach a wider share of the population will be a crucial policy priority for the next administration, and key strategies to reduce poverty will be to accelerate foreign investment inflows into manufacturing and infrastructure development. Increased investment in agricultural infrastructure and irrigation technology, as well as insurance schemes for farmers will help to boost rural incomes and mitigate risks associated with extreme weather events such as drought or typhoons,” Biswas said in his research note.

“The next administration will also need to ensure that trade and investment liberalization are high priorities on its policy agenda, through bilateral and regional trade and investment initiatives with key partners such as the Asean+3 nations as well as the European Union, the United States and India,” he further said.