OPINION

Euro-style integration not the way forward for East Asia

News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 31/05/2012

» Not so long ago, it was popular for university students in these parts to write term papers on comparisons between the economic integration of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' economic cooperation after the formation of the Asean Free Trade Area in 1992. Such interest in this European-Asean parallel has dried up following the global financial crisis that convulsed the United States and other Western economies in 2007-08 and the spiralling crisis of the euro, the EU's main currency.