This special volume of the Philippine Journal of Development (PJD) is devoted to discussions and analyses of issues on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 implementation. Except for the services liberalization paper, all the papers were carried out under the AEC Scorecard Project of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia. The project sought to assess the status of Philippine commitments, understand the factors affecting the AEC implementation, and improve the AEC Scorecard. Primary data gathering was conducted through perception surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions among various stakeholders from the government, industry, academe, and civil society groups. The respondents were carefully selected as their responses formed the basis of case studies presented in the papers. The analyses were supplemented with secondary data and existing literature on the core AEC issues.
The reports covered trade liberalization, trade facilitation, agriculture, investment facilitation and promotion, services liberalization and the need for capacity building, movement of professional workers, and logistics and transport connectivity. They examined the issues and implications arising from liberalization and crafted measures on the way forward and how the government can facilitate the implementation of the AEC agreements taking into account the country`s own domestic development aspirations and industrial strategy.