Are We Ready For The ASEAN Invasion?

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The invasion is near! However, it's not what you all fear.  It is the ASEAN integration.  I've recently become curious about this topic and did a little bit of research.

 The leaders of ASEAN countries met a long time ago and agreed towards a unified ASEAN community. The ASEAN nations signed an ASEAN Charter in November 2007.    One of the objectives of a unified ASEAN community is to make ASEAN a single market and production base.  ASEAN will become a highly competitive economic region, equitably growing together economically.  It will also be fully integrated into the global economy.

 ASEAN has a total of 10 members namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), and Vietnam. 

 The ASEAN integration aims to totally remove trade barriers in all 10 ASEAN countries. So this will ensure the free flow of goods.  Along with free trade, professional services and skilled labor will also freely move within the ASEAN region.  If this is the case, we'll be seeing more ASEAN nationalities in the not too distant future. This is going to be a big opportunity for our country as well as other ASEAN countries.  Think of the bigger market for each of us in ASEAN. 

The government says we are ready, but some businessmen say we are not. Anyway, ready or not the integration is here to come.  We will be seeing more ASEAN workers who will be bringing in their culture.  One element of culture is music and we'll probably be hearing more of  ASEAN music as the integration moves forward. 

I've randomly selected popular bands regardless of the genre for each ASEAN countries, to take a peek at things to come.

Indonesia's Noah:



Malaysia's Hujan:


Philippines' Rivermaya:


Singapore's The Sam Willows:


Thailand's Da Endorphine:


Brunei's Dinshe:


Cambodia's Solid Stone:


Laos' Sarky Mekmorakoth:


Myanmar's (Burma) Me N Ma Girls


Vietnam's 365daband:


C'mon y'all let's all get ready for the invasion!!

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