JAKARTA, Jun 19 (The Jakarta Post) - Myanmar’s preparations for the ASEAN chairmanship in 2014 have been going well as the country is set to host the group’s series of meetings for the first time next year. ...

The ASEAN summit in May 2013 ended with brighter prospects on the political and security front than on the economic one, ahead of th ASEAN Community in 2015, says Rizal Sukma of Indonesia's Centre for Strategic Studies. ...

ASEAN's commission for women and children's rights is three years old, but few know about it, says Yuyun Wahyuningrum, a senior adviser on human rights at the Human Rights Working Group, based in Jakarta, Indonesia. ...

BANGKOK, Apr 1 (The Bangkok Post) - Thai businesses are increasingly looking to expand their operations abroad over the next few years. For many, Asean countries look like attractive destinations for a number of reasons, such as good growth prospects, production factors such as labour and natural resources, cost advantages, familiarity with their business cultures, and the approaching single market under th ...

The tobacco industry says that tobacco control measures hurt farmers who cultivate the crop, but South-east Asian anti-smoking campaigners say this isn't the case. They present a Filipino farmer who says he is much better off switching to white corn, reports Abigail Lee ...

Myanmar's central government has yet to acknowledge the military's use of rape as a weapon of war against ethnic women, but it has to do so if there is to be real peace in the country, argues Christine Leah and Nan Paw Gay in this analysis. ...

SINGAPORE, Mar 17 (IPS Asia-Pacific) - Take a walk in Singapore and you’ll find that the city-state is clean, green ­– and multi-national. ...

What do the four ASEAN bodies dealing with trafficking have in common? They don't talk to each other, points out Yuyun Wahyuningrum, a rights expert at the Jakarta-based Human Rights Working Group. ...

Myanmar's freer media now thrive with debate, but there is a lot of room for exploring issues related to ASEAN, especially as the country prepares to become ASEAN chair in 2014, writes Moe Thuzar ...

'ASEAN' and the 'ASEAN' Economic Community have become mantras of sorts in Thailand, but unresolved political tensions could undermine the gains from the regional economic interdependence expected by deeper economic linkages in the coming years, argues Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University. ...