title: The Social Network

text: Josh Pence is the body double for Hammer, whose likeness was digitally imposed onto Pence's body. He is listed in the end credits as playing Tyler Winklevoss alongside Hammer. He also appears in a cameo role as the man being detoured from the bathroom by Zuckerberg and Saverin.


title: The Social Network

text: Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin said, "What attracted me to [the film project] had nothing to do with Facebook. The invention itself is as modern as it gets, but the story is as old as storytelling; the themes of friendship, loyalty, jealousy, class and power." He said he read an unfinished draft of "The Accidental Billionaires" when the publisher began "shopping it around" for a film adaptation. Sorkin added, "I was reading it and somewhere on page three I said yes. It was the fastest I said yes to anything ... They wanted me to start right away. Ben and I were kind of doing our research at the same time, sort of along parallel lines."


title: The Social Network

text: According to Sorkin, Mezrich did not send him material from his book as he wrote it: "Two or three times we'd get together. I'd go to Boston, or we'd meet in New York and kind of compare notes and share information, but I didn't see the book until he was done with it. By the time I saw the book, I was probably 80 percent done with the screenplay." Sorkin elaborated:


title: The Social Network

text: Casting began in mid-2009, with Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, and Andrew Garfield announced to star. Jonah Hill was in contention for Timberlake's role, but director David Fincher passed on him. In October 2009, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, Armie Hammer, Shelby Young, and Josh Pence were cast. Max Minghella and Dakota Johnson were also confirmed. In a 2009 interview with "The Baltimore Sun", Eisenberg said, "Even though I've gotten to be in some wonderful movies, this character seems so much more overtly insensitive in so many ways that seem more real to me in the best way. I don't often get cast as insensitive people, so it feels very comfortable: fresh and exciting, as if you never have to worry about the audience. Not that I worry about the audience anyway – it should be just the furthest thing from your mind. "The Social Network" is the biggest relief I've ever had in a movie". In 2010, it was mentioned that Rashida Jones would appear as Marylin Delpy.


title: The Social Network

text: Principal photography began in October 2009 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Scenes were filmed around the campuses of two Massachusetts prep schools, Phillips Academy and Milton Academy. Additional scenes were filmed on the campus of Wheelock College, which was set up to be Harvard's campus. (Harvard has turned down most requests for on-location filming ever since the filming of "Love Story" (1970), which caused significant physical damage to trees on campus.) Filming took place on the Keyser and Wyman quadrangles in the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University from November 2–4, which also doubled for Harvard in the film. The first scene in the film, where Zuckerberg is with his girlfriend, took 99 takes to finish. The film was shot on the Red One digital cinema camera. The rowing scenes with the Winklevoss brothers were filmed at Community Rowing Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts and at the Henley Royal Regatta; miniature faking process was used in a sequence showing a rowing event at the latter. Although a significant portion of the latter half of the film is set in Silicon Valley, the filmmakers opted to shoot those scenes in Los Angeles and Pasadena.


title: The Social Network

text: Armie Hammer, who portrayed the Winklevoss twins, acted alongside body double Josh Pence while his scenes were filmed. His face was later digitally grafted onto Pence's face during post-production, while other scenes used split-screen photography. Pence was concerned about having no face time during the role, but after considerable musing thought of the role as a "no-brainer". He also appears in a cameo role elsewhere in the film. Hammer states that director David Fincher "likes to push himself and likes to push technology" and is "one of the most technologically minded guys I've ever seen." This included sending the actors to "twin boot camp" for 10 months to learn everything about the Winklevosses.


title: The Social Network

text: Community Rowing Inc. held a casting call and a tryout for 20 rowing extras; some were graduates from Harvard, Northeastern University, Boston University, George Washington University, and Trinity College, as well as local club rowers from Union Boat Club and Riverside Boat Club. None of the cast rowing extras for the Henley Royal Regatta racing scene appeared in the film; filming for the race was originally planned to take place in Los Angeles, but Fincher decided to film in England during production.


title: The Social Network

text: David Fincher hired Loyola Marymount coach Dawn Reagan to help train Josh Pence and Armie Hammer. While Hammer was new to the sport, Pence rowed previously at Dartmouth College.


title: The Social Network

text: The indoor rowing scene was filmed at Boston University's indoor rowing tanks. All of BU's blue oars in the scene were repainted to Harvard's crimson color for filming. Dan Boyne was the official rowing consultant in the US and the UK.


title: The Social Network

text: On June 1, 2010, it was announced that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross would score the film. The soundtrack was released September 28 in various formats under the Null Corporation label. Leading up to the release of the soundtrack, a free five-track EP was made available for download. The White Stripes' song "Ball and Biscuit" can be heard in the opening of the film and The Beatles' song "Baby, You're a Rich Man" concludes the film. Neither song appears on the soundtrack album. Reznor and Ross won the award for Best Original Score at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards, as well as the 2011 Academy Award for Best Original Score.


title: The Social Network

text: The first theatrical poster, designed by Neil Kellerhouse, was released on June 18, 2010. As Kellerhouse previously designed posters for the films of Steven Soderbergh, director David Fincher's friend, he was contacted by Ceán Chaffin in late 2009 to work on the key art for "The Social Network", which had to make sole use of one approved photograph, that of Eisenberg's head. As he wanted to highlight the tremendous drama that went with Mark Zuckerberg's success, Kellerhouse thought of the tagline "You don't get to 300 million friends without making a few enemies"; he would later adjust the line to "500 million friends" in anticipation of Facebook reaching 500 million users by the film's release date. Kellerhouse's poster has been praised for its unique and "striking" design, and alongside his work for the film "I'm Still Here", has since become influential in film marketing; posters for "The King's Speech" and "The Armstrong Lie" strongly evoked the poster's design format.


title: The Social Network

text: The film's first teaser trailer was released on June 25, 2010. The second teaser was released on July 8. The full length theatrical trailer debuted on July 16, 2010, which plays an edited version of the song "Creep", originally by Radiohead, covered by the Belgian choir group Scala & Kolacny Brothers. The trailer was then shown in theaters, prior to the films "Inception", "Dinner for Schmucks", "Salt", "Easy A", "The Virginity Hit", and "The Other Guys". The theatrical trailer, put together by Mark Woollen & Associates, won the Grand Key Art award at the 2011 Key Art Awards, sponsored by "The Hollywood Reporter", and was also featured on "The Film Informant"s Perfect 10 Trailers in 2010.


title: The Social Network

text: The film was released in theaters in the United States on the weekend of October 1–3, 2010. It debuted at No. 1, grossing $22.4 million in 2,771 theaters. The film retained the top spot in its second weekend, dropping only 31.2%, breaking "Inception"s 32.0% record as the smallest second weekend drop for any number-one film of 2010, while being the third-smallest overall behind "Secretariat"s 25.1% drop and "Tooth Fairy"'s 28.6% drop. At the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed $97 million in the United States and $128 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $224.9 million.


title: The Social Network

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 326 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Impeccably scripted, beautifully directed, and filled with fine performances, "The Social Network" is a riveting, ambitious example of modern filmmaking at its finest." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 95 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Social Network

text: From "The Guardian", Peter Bradshaw gave the film four stars, praising David Fincher's directing as the "right intensity and claustrophobia for a story that takes place largely in a stupefyingly male environment at Harvard University in 2003". In her review for "The Verge", Kaitlyn Tiffany wrote positive comments on Aaron Sorkin's screenplay, writing that his "reflex for writing witty, whiny men with outsized intellect and poorly disguised narcissism serves as an advantage instead of a handicap." The film's editing by Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall was also lauded by critics, leading to their win of the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Additionally, the film's score received positive commentary, with some reviewers stating that it was "a persistent source of simmering tension in the movie", and a "masterpiece".


title: The Social Network

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times", giving it four stars and naming it the best film of the year, wrote: "David Fincher's film has the rare quality of being not only as smart as its brilliant hero, but in the same way. It is cocksure, impatient, cold, exciting and instinctively perceptive." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film his first full four-star rating of the year and said: ""The Social Network" is the movie of the year. But Fincher and Sorkin triumph by taking it further. Lacing their scathing wit with an aching sadness, they define the dark irony of the past decade." "The Harvard Crimson" review called it "flawless" and gave it five stars.


title: The Social Network

text: Joe Morgenstern in "The Wall Street Journal" praised the film as exhilarating but noted: "The biographical part takes liberties with its subject. Aaron Sorkin based his screenplay on [...] "The Accidental Billionaires", so everything that's seen isn't necessarily to be believed."


title: The Social Network

text: Among the film's very few negative reviewers was Nathan Heller of "Slate", who described it as "rote and deeply mediocre" as well as "maddeningly generic", and believed that, "Sorkin and Fincher's 2003 Harvard is a citadel of old money, regatta blazers, and (if I am not misreading the implication here) a Jewish underclass striving beneath the heel of a WASP-centric, socially draconian culture... to get the university this wrong in this movie is no small matter."


title: The Social Network

text: "The Social Network" appeared on 78 film critics' top-ten lists of the best films of 2010, based on Metacritic's aggregation. Out of the critics, 22 ranked the film first, and 12 ranked the film second. Out of the films of 2010, "The Social Network" appeared on the most top-ten lists. In 2016, "The Social Network" was voted the 27th-best film of the 21st century by the BBC, as voted on by 177 film critics from around the world.


title: The Social Network

text: In 2018, IndieWire writers ranked the script the fourth best American screenplay of the 21st century, with Michael Nordine arguing that "everything came together nearly perfectly on the film, thanks in large part to Aaron Sorkin's Oscar-winning screenplay. Its finds the loquacious scribe at his best, with all the verbal takedowns [...] and rapid-fire back-and-forths we've come to expect (and, more often than not, love) from him. Sorkin's portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg was hardly flattering, but recent headlines suggest it may have been too sympathetic."


title: The Social Network

text: "The Social Network" was released on DVD and Blu-ray January 11, 2011. In its first week of release, DVD sales totaled $13,470,305 and it was the number-one-sold DVD of the week. The DVD includes an audio commentary with director David Fincher, and a second commentary with writer Aaron Sorkin and the cast. The Blu-ray and two-disc DVD releases include the commentaries, along with a feature-length documentary, "How Did They Ever Make a Movie of Facebook?", featurettes, "Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter and Ren Klyce on Post", "Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and David Fincher on the Score", "In the Hall of the Mountain King: Reznor's First Draft", "Swarmatron", "Jeff Cronenweth and David Fincher on the Visuals", and a Ruby Skye VIP Room: Multi-Angle Scene Breakdown feature.


title: The Social Network

text: The film was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray in October 2021 as part of the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection (Volume 2), featuring a new Dolby Atmos mix and upscaled Dolby Vision/HDR10 transfer from the film's 2K master.


title: The Social Network

text: "The Social Network" won the Best Motion Picture – Drama Golden Globe at the 68th Golden Globe Awards on January 16, 2011. The film also won the awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score, making it the film with the most wins of the night.


title: The Social Network

text: The film was nominated for seven British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Andrew Garfield), and Rising Star Award (Andrew Garfield). It won three for Best Editing, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Direction on February 13, 2011.


title: The Social Network

text: "The Social Network" received nominations for eight Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won three for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing at the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27, 2011.


title: The Social Network

text: The film won Best Picture from the National Board of Review, National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Circle, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association, making it only the third film in history—after "Schindler's List" (1993) and "L.A. Confidential" (1997)—to sweep the "Big Four" critics awards. The film also won the "Hollywood Ensemble Award" from the Hollywood Film Awards.


title: The Social Network

text: The script was leaked online in July 2009. In November 2009, executive producer Kevin Spacey said, ""The Social Network" is probably going to be a lot funnier than people might expect it to be." "The Cardinal Courier" stated that the film was about "greed, obsession, unpredictability and sex" and asked, "Although there are over 500 million Facebook users, does this mean Facebook can become a profitable blockbuster movie?"


title: The Social Network

text: At the D8 conference hosted by D: All Things Digital on June 2, 2010, host Kara Swisher told Zuckerberg she knew he was not happy with "The Social Network" being based on him, to which he replied, "I just wished that nobody made a movie of me while I was still alive." Zuckerberg stated to Oprah Winfrey that the drama and partying of the film is mostly fiction, and that he had spent most of the past six years focusing, working hard, and coding Facebook. Speaking to an audience at Stanford University, Zuckerberg said that instead of making Facebook to "get girls", he made it because he enjoyed "building things". He added that the film accurately depicted his wardrobe, saying, "It's interesting the stuff that they focused on getting right—like every single shirt and fleece they had in that movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own."


title: The Social Network

text: Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz called the film a "dramatization of history ... it is interesting to see my past rewritten in a way that emphasizes things that didn't matter, (like the Winklevosses, who I've still never even met and had no part in the work we did to create the site over the past 6 years) and leaves out things that really did (like the many other people in our lives at the time, who supported us in innumerable ways)". According to Moskovitz:


title: The Social Network

text: Co-founder Eduardo Saverin said "the movie was clearly intended to be entertainment and not a fact-based documentary". Sorkin said: "I don't want my fidelity to be to the truth; I want it to be to storytelling. What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy's sake, and can we not have the true be the enemy of the good?"


title: The Social Network

text: Journalist Jeff Jarvis acknowledged the film was "well-crafted" but called it "the anti-social movie", objecting to Sorkin's decision to change various events and characters for dramatic effect, and dismissing it as "the story that those who resist the change society is undergoing want to see". Technology broadcaster Leo Laporte concurred, calling the film "anti-geek and misogynistic". Sorkin responded to these allegations by saying, "I was writing about a very angry and deeply misogynistic group of people".


title: The Social Network

text: Andrew Clark of "The Guardian" wrote that "there's something insidious about this genre of [docudrama] scriptwriting", wondering if "a 26-year-old businessman really deserves to have his name dragged through the mud in a murky mixture of fact and imagination for the general entertainment of the movie-viewing public?". Clark added, "I'm not sure whether Mark Zuckerberg is a punk, a genius or both. But I won't be seeing "The Social Network" to find out."


title: The Social Network

text: Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore, blogging for CNN, said: "If the Facebook founder [Zuckerberg] is concerned about being represented as anything but a genius with an industrious work ethic, he can breathe a sigh of relief." Jessi Hempel, a technology writer for "Fortune" who says she has known Zuckerberg "for a long time", wrote of the film:


title: The Social Network

text: Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig wrote in "The New Republic" that Sorkin's screenplay does not acknowledge the "real villain" of the story:


title: The Social Network

text: In an onstage discussion with "The Huffington Post" co-founder Arianna Huffington, during Advertising Week 2010 in New York, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said she had seen the film and it was "very Hollywood" and mainly "fiction". "In real life, he [Zuckerberg] was just sitting around with his friends in front of his computer, ordering pizza", she declared. "Who wants to go see that for two hours?".


title: The Social Network

text: Divya Narendra said that he was "initially surprised" to see himself portrayed by the non-Indian actor Max Minghella, but also admitted that the actor did a "good job in pushing the dialogue forward and creating a sense of urgency in what was a very frustrating period".


title: The Social Network

text: Since its release, "The Social Network" has been cited as inspiring involvement in start-ups and social media. Bob Lefsetz has stated that: "watching this movie makes you want to run from the theatre, grab your laptop and build your own empire," noting that "The Social Network" has helped fuel an emerging perception that "techies have become the new rock stars." This has led Dave Knox to comment that: "fifteen years from now we might just look back and realize this movie inspired our next great generation of entrepreneurs." After seeing the movie, Zuckerberg was quoted as saying he is "interested to see what effect "The Social Network" has on entrepreneurship", noting that he gets "lots of messages from people who claim that they have been very much inspired... to start their own company." Saverin echoed these sentiments, stating that the film may inspire "countless others to create and take that leap to start a new business." In one such instance, the co-founders of Wall Street Magnate confirmed that they were inspired to create the fantasy trading community after watching "The Social Network".


title: The Social Network

text: Following his success with the film, Sorkin became attached to another project about a technology company, writing the script for the 2015 biopic "Steve Jobs", which used a similar format. Another Facebook film may be produced, as Sheryl Sandberg has signed a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to develop her 2013 book "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead", into a movie.


title: The Social Network

text: Following the close of the decade, "The Social Network" was recognized as one of the best films of the 2010s. Metacritic reported that it was listed on over 30 film critics' top-ten lists for the 2010s, including eight first-place rankings and four second-place rankings. Metacritic ranked "The Social Network" third overall, following "" and "Moonlight". "Esquire" named "The Social Network" the best of the 2010s, calling it "Citizen Kane" "for the Internet age" and dubbing it "the movie of our new millennium". With Facebook going "from a utopian, world-shrinking force of good to a potential threat to democracy", "Esquire" wrote, "Fincher seemed to sense all of this and more long before anyone else. And his brilliant, troubling film bristles with that queasy sense of prophecy and prescience." "Polygon", calling "The Social Network" the best film of the decade, wrote, ""The Social Network", by chance or by design, has become one of the most immensely relevant movies of this decade... But after nearly a decade of watching Facebook 'move fast and break things,' including news websites, social video, politics, etc., the movie's tangible sense of tension can easily be reinterpreted as foreboding for what comes "after" you make a billion friends." Director Quentin Tarantino called the film the best of the 2010s, singling out the script by Aaron Sorkin, whom he described as "the greatest active dialogist".


title: The Social Network

text: "Rolling Stone" ranked "The Social Network" second after "Moonlight" (2016) on its end-of-decade list, describing it as "one deliciously re-watchable preview of the apocalypse, as entertaining and cheeky as it is troubling and startlingly prescient". "Time Out" named it the fourth-best of the decade, "Powered by a relentless, clinical Aaron Sorkin script, directed with sinuous grace by David Fincher and loaded with smirking, smart-ass central performances, "The Social Network" is arguably the most important and prophetic film of our era, itself a depressing thought." "ScreenCrush" ranked "The Social Network" eighth, referring to it as "[Fincher's] spiritual sequel to "Fight Club", another story of a embittered, lonely man who discovers unleashing his rage at society has unexpected consequences". "Mashable", listing "The Social Network" among the top 15 films of the 2010s, said of the story, "It was everything young people could be and everything older generations feared in us before a decade of blaming [us for] problems we didn't create and can't solve." "IndieWire" ranked "The Social Network" sixteenth among the decade's films, writing, ""The Social Network" is both a thrilling, queasy exploration of how Facebook came to be and a searing indictment of what it would inevitably become." "Inverse" listed the film among those defining "class rage" in the 2010s, "As a gently prodding diagnosis of class conflict, "The Social Network" is a logical place to start."


title: The Social Network

text: In January 2019, Sorkin revealed that Rudin has suggested the development of a screenplay for a sequel, noting, "A lot of very interesting, dramatic stuff has happened since the movie ends." Sorkin also mentioned that there was indeed enough material to create a sequel. On July 18, 2019, Eisenberg expressed his interests in starring in the proposed sequel, stating that "Sorkin is a genius, and if he chooses to write about something, I'll obviously be interested". In October 2020, a decade after the film's release, Sorkin announced that he would only write the sequel's script if David Fincher returned as director.


title: Hilary Swank

text: Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American actress and film producer. She first became known in 1992 for her role on the television series "Camp Wilder" and made her film debut with a minor role in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1992). She then had her breakthrough for starring as Julie Pierce in "The Next Karate Kid" (1994), the fourth installment of "The Karate Kid" franchise, and as Carly Reynolds on the eighth season of "Beverly Hills, 90210" (19971998).


title: Hilary Swank

text: Swank came to international recognition for her performances as Brandon Teena, a transgender man, in Kimberly Peirce's "Boys Don't Cry" (1999), and as Maggie Fitzgerald, an aspiring boxer, in Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" (2004). Both of her performances earned her critical acclaim, and she earned numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Critics' Choice Movie Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She was named by "Time" as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005.


title: Hilary Swank

text: Swank later ventured into producing with the films "Amelia" (2009), "Conviction" (2010), "You're Not You" (2014), and "What They Had" (2018), in all of which she also starred. Her other notable films include the television film "Iron Jawed Angels" (2004) and the feature films "Freedom Writers" (2007), "Logan Lucky" (2017), "The Hunt" (2020), and "Fatale" (2020).


title: Hilary Swank

text: Swank was born on July 30, 1974, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her mother, Judy Kay ("née" Clough), was a secretary and dancer, and her father, Stephen Michael Swank, was a Chief Master Sergeant in the Oregon Air National Guard and later a traveling salesman. Many of Swank's family members are from Ringgold County, Iowa. Her maternal grandmother, Frances Martha Clough ("née" Dominguez), was born in El Centro, California, and was of Mexican (Spanish and Native American) descent. Swank's paternal grandmother was born in England; her other ancestry includes Dutch, German, Ulster-Scots, Scottish, Swiss, and Welsh. The surname "Swank," originally "Schwenk," is of German origin.


title: Hilary Swank

text: After living in Spokane, Washington, Swank's family moved into a home near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington, when Swank was six. She attended Happy Valley Elementary School, Fairhaven Middle School, then Sehome High School in Bellingham until she was 16. She also competed in the Junior Olympics and the Washington state championships in swimming, and she ranked fifth in the state in all-around gymnastics. Swank made her first appearance on stage when she was nine years old, starring in "The Jungle Book".


title: Hilary Swank

text: When she was 15, her parents separated, and her mother, supportive of her daughter's desire to act, moved with her to Los Angeles, where they lived in their car until Swank's mother saved enough money to rent an apartment. Swank has called her mother the inspiration for her acting career and her life. In California, Swank enrolled in South Pasadena High School, later dropping out. She described her time at South Pasadena High School, "I felt like such an outsider. I didn't feel like I fit in. I didn't belong in any way. I didn't even feel like the teachers wanted me there. I just felt like I wasn't seen or understood." She explained that she became an actor because she felt like an outsider, "As a kid I felt that I belonged only when I read a book or saw a movie, and could get involved with a character. It was natural that I became an actor because I longed so much to be those other people, or at least to play them."


title: Hilary Swank

text: Swank made her film debut in the 1992 comedy horror film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", playing a supporting role, after which she acted in the direct-to-video drama "Quiet Days in Hollywood", where she co-starred with Chad Lowe, who became her husband for a time.


title: Hilary Swank

text: Her first leading film role was in the fourth installment of the "Karate Kid" series, "The Next Karate Kid" (1994) as Julie Pierce. The role used her gymnastics background and paired her with Pat Morita. In 1994, she also starred in the drama "", as the abused stepdaughter who was protected by Donna (Jaclyn Smith). In 1995, she appeared with British actor Bruce Payne in "Kounterfeit". In 1996, she starred in a TV movie, family drama "Terror in the Family," as a troubled teenager. In September 1997, Swank played single mother Carly Reynolds in "Beverly Hills, 90210" and was initially promised it would be a two-year role, but saw her character written out after 16 episodes in January 1998. Swank later stated that she was devastated at being cut from the show, thinking, "If I'm not good enough for "90210", I'm not good enough for anything."


title: Hilary Swank

text: The firing from "Beverly Hills, 90210" freed her to audition for the role of Brandon Teena in "Boys Don't Cry". To prepare for the role, Swank lived as a man for a month and reduced her body fat to 7%. She earned only $75 per day for her work on the film, culminating in a total of $3,000. Her earnings were so low that she had not even earned enough to qualify for health insurance. Upon release, many critics lauded her performance, with "Premiere" listing it as one of the "100 Greatest Performances of All Time". James Berardinelli wrote at the time that Swank "gives the performance of her career". Her work earned her several accolades, including the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actress. In an interview with "Variety" in 2020, Swank said that she felt a trans actor should have played the role, and had she been offered it today, she would have refused it, stating "Twenty-one years later, not only are trans people having their lives and living, thankfully, although we still have a long way to go in their safety and their inclusivity, but we now have a bunch of trans actors who would obviously be a lot more right for the role and have the opportunity to actually audition for the role."


title: Hilary Swank

text: Swank again won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for playing a female boxer in Clint Eastwood's 2004 film "Million Dollar Baby", a role for which she underwent extensive training in the ring and weight room, aided by professional trainer Grant L. Roberts, gaining 19 pounds of muscle. With her second Oscar, she had joined the ranks of Vivien Leigh, Sally Field, and Luise Rainer as the only actresses to have been nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress twice and won both times. After winning her second Oscar, she said, "I don't know what I did in this life to deserve this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream."


title: Hilary Swank

text: In 2006, Swank signed a three-year contract with Guerlain to be the face of the women's fragrance Insolence. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the motion picture category on January 8, 2007; it was the 2,325th star presented. In 2007, Swank starred in "Freedom Writers", about a real-life teacher, Erin Gruwell. Many reviews of her performance were positive, with one critic noting that she "brings credibility" to the role, and another stating that her performance reaches a "singular lack of artifice, stripping herself back to the bare essentials". Swank next starred in the horror film "The Reaping" (2007), as a debunker of religious phenomena. Swank convinced the producers to move the film's setting from New England to the Deep South, and the film was filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when Hurricane Katrina struck. The same year, she also appeared in the romantic drama "P.S. I Love You" with Gerard Butler.


title: Hilary Swank

text: Swank portrayed the pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart in the 2009 biopic "Amelia", which she also co-executive produced through 2S Films, a production company she established with producer Molly Smith.


title: Hilary Swank

text: In 2012, Swank's audiobook recording of Caroline Knapp's "Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs" was released at Audible.com. In 2013, she starred in the television film "Mary and Martha" alongside Brenda Blethyn. In 2014, Swank played the lead role of Kate Parker, a woman whose life is shattered when she develops the degenerative disease ALS, in "You're Not You". The film co-starred Emmy Rossum and Josh Duhamel. In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.


title: Hilary Swank

text: In 2017, she appeared in Steven Soderbergh's heist comedy "Logan Lucky", as Special Agent Sarah Grayson, alongside Channing Tatum and Daniel Craig, and portrayed lawyer Colette Hughes in Bille August's drama film "55 Steps". In 2018, Swank starred in and executive produced the Alzheimer's disease drama film "What They Had", directed by Elizabeth Chomko. Also in 2018, she portrayed Gail Getty in the first season of FX's anthology series "Trust". Swank was reported to star as Laura Murphy in Alejandro González Iñárritu's drama series "The One Percent".


title: Hilary Swank

text: In July 2019, Swank was cast in the thriller film "The Hunt", opposite Betty Gilpin. Before its release, the film's plot, about deadly violence between political liberals and conservatives caused controversy, after which its release was delayed by Universal from the original date of September 2019. Swank commented on the situation, stating: "No one's seen the film. You can't really have a conversation about it without understanding what it's about." The film was released in 2020, and received mixed reviews. In September 2020, Swank portrayed Emma, an astronaut, in the Netflix science drama series "Away", which was cancelled after one season. For both "The Hunt" and "Away", Swank earned a total of three nominations at the 2021 Critics' Choice Super Awards.


title: Hilary Swank

text: On October 18, 2016, Swank announced that she is launching a luxury clothing line, Mission Statement. The collection includes jackets, tops, dresses, bottoms, sports bras and sweaters that are made of eco-friendly technical fabrics, priced from $125 to $1,150. Swank aimed to create clothing that is eco-conscious and devoid of large logos, saying in an interview with "DuJour" that "we believe in promoting the women wearing the clothes and not the brand itself, which is why there is no external branding." The brand works with suppliers that follow strict environmental policies and sustainable production practices.


title: Hilary Swank

text: In July 2007, hair product brand Pantene, in partnership with the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Women's Cancer Research Fund, signed Swank to represent Pantene Beautiful Lengths charity campaign in 2008. The campaign encouraged people to donate their healthy hair to create free wigs for women who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment. Swank participated in Pantene's Million Inch Chain program by cutting her hair and donating it.


title: Hilary Swank

text: Swank hosted and co-produced a two-hour television special, Fox’s "Cause for Paws: An All-Star Dog Special", which aired on Thanksgiving night in 2014. The show celebrated the human-dog connection and rescue dogs. In 2014, The Petco Foundation honored Swank for her animal advocacy work and, in 2015, she received the Compassion Award by ASPCA.


title: Hilary Swank

text: In 2015, Swank founded a nonprofit organization, the Hilaroo Foundation, which aims to bring at-risk teenagers and rescue dogs together in the hope that the two can heal each other. She was inspired to create the foundation after rescuing a dog called Karoo in South Africa.


title: Hilary Swank

text: In a January 2009 episode of "The Office", "Prince Family Paper", the subplot of the episode is the office coworkers debating whether or not Hilary Swank is "hot". Swank referred to such discussions emphasizing the looks of women in Hollywood as doing a "disservice".


title: Hilary Swank

text: In October 2011, Swank attracted controversy for attending an event in Chechnya's capital Grozny on the 35th birthday of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov on October 5. After wishing him "Happy birthday, Mr. President", she reportedly claimed knowledge about Kadyrov saying, "I read. I do my research." Following criticism from human-rights groups, that reported having informed her about the human rights abuses in Chechnya prior to the event and asked her to reconsider her participation, Swank said she was unaware that Kadyrov had been accused of human-rights violations and that she "deeply regrets" taking part in the lavish concert. She donated her personal appearance fees "to various charitable organizations".


title: Hilary Swank

text: In a 2020 interview with "Health", Swank revealed that she took a three-year break from acting beginning in 2014 to help her father recover from a lung transplant.


title: Hilary Swank

text: She has been good friends with actress Mariska Hargitay after meeting on the set of television series "ER." Hargitay was a maid of honor at Swank's wedding to Philip Schneider in 2018.


title: Hilary Swank

text: While filming "Quiet Days in Hollywood", Swank met actor Chad Lowe. They married on September 28, 1997. They announced their intention to divorce on January 9, 2006, which was finalized on November 1, 2007. In 2007, Swank began dating her agent, John Campisi, but they ended their relationship in May 2012.


title: Hilary Swank

text: On March 22, 2016, Swank announced her engagement to Rubén Torres, a financial advisor with UBS and former professional tennis player. The two had been dating since May 2015. In June 2016, Swank's representative confirmed that Torres and she had ended their engagement.


title: Hilary Swank

text: On August 18, 2018, she married entrepreneur Philip Schneider after two years of dating. On October 5, 2022, she announced that she and her husband are expecting twins.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration between its members and countries in the Asia-Pacific. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 668million.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN's primary objective was to accelerate economic growth and through that social progress and cultural development. A secondary objective was to promote regional peace and stability based on the rule of law and the principles of the UN Charter. With some of the fastest growing economies in the world, ASEAN has broadened its objective beyond the economic and social spheres. In 2003, ASEAN moved along the path similar to the European Union (EU) by agreeing to establish an ASEAN community that consists of three pillars: the ASEAN Security Community, the ASEAN Economic Community, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. The ten stalks of rice in the ASEAN flag and insignia represents the ten Southeast Asian countries bound together in solidarity.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN regularly engages other countries in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. A major partner of UN, SCO, PA, GCC, MERCOSUR, CELAC, and ECO, ASEAN maintains a global network of alliances and dialogue partners and is considered by many as a global powerhouse, the central union for cooperation in Asia-Pacific, and a prominent and influential organization. It is involved in numerous international affairs, and hosts diplomatic missions throughout the world. The organization's success has become the driving force of some of the largest trade blocs in history, including APEC and RCEP.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN was preceded by an organisation formed on 31 July 1961 called the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA), a group consisting of Thailand, the Philippines, and the Federation of Malaya. ASEAN itself was created on 8 August 1967, when the foreign ministers of five countries:


title: ASEAN

text: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, signed the ASEAN Declaration. As set out in the Declaration, the aims and purposes of ASEAN are to accelerate economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in the region, to promote regional peace, collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest, to provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities, to collaborate for better utilization of agriculture and industry to raise the living standards of the people, to promote Southeast Asian studies and to maintain close, beneficial co-operation with existing international organisations with similar aims and purposes.


title: ASEAN

text: The creation of ASEAN was initially motivated by the desire to contain communism. Communism had taken a foothold in mainland Asia with the Soviet Union occupation of the northern Korean peninsula after World War II, establishing communist governments in North Korea (1945), People's Republic of China (1949) and portions of former French Indochina with North Vietnam (1954), accompanied by the communist insurgency "Emergency" in British Malaya and unrest in the recently independent Philippines from the U S. in the early 1950s.


title: ASEAN

text: These events also encouraged the earlier formation of SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organization) led by the United States and United Kingdom along with Australia with several Southeast Asian partners in 1954 as a "containment" extension and an eastern version of the early defensive bulwark NATO in western Europe of 1949. However, the local member states of ASEAN group achieved greater cohesion in the mid-1970s following a change in the balance of power after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975 and the decline of SEATO.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN's first summit meeting, held in Bali, Indonesia in 1976, resulted in an agreement on several industrial projects and the signing of a Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, and a Declaration of Concord. The end of the Cold War allowed ASEAN countries to exercise greater political independence in the region, and in the 1990s, ASEAN emerged as a leading voice on regional trade and security issues.


title: ASEAN

text: On 15 December 1995, the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty was signed to turn Southeast Asia into a nuclear-weapon-free zone. The treaty took effect on 28 March 1997 after all but one of the member states had ratified it. It became fully effective on 21 June 2001 after the Philippines ratified it, effectively banning all nuclear weapons in the region.


title: ASEAN

text: On 7 January 1984, Brunei became ASEAN's sixth member and on 28 July 1995, following the end of the Cold War, Vietnam joined as the seventh member. Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) joined two years later on 23 July 1997. Cambodia was to join at the same time as Laos and Myanmar, but a coup in 1997 and other internal instability delayed its entry. It then joined on 30 April 1999 following the stabilization of its government.


title: ASEAN

text: In 2006, ASEAN was given observer status at the United Nations General Assembly. In response, the organisation awarded the status of "dialogue partner" to the UN.


title: ASEAN

text: Besides their close geographic proximity, Southeast Asian nations are considered a cultural crossroads between East Asia and South Asia, located at critical junctions of the South China Sea as well as the Indian Ocean, and as a result received much influence from Islamic and Persian influences prior to the European colonial ages.


title: ASEAN

text: Since around 100 BCE, the Southeast Asian archipelago occupied a central position at the crossroads of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea trading routes, which stimulated the economy and the influx of ideas. This included the introduction of abugida scripts to Southeast Asia as well as the Chinese script to Vietnam. Besides various indigenous scripts, various abugida Brahmic scripts were widespread in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malay etc. Historically, scripts such as Pallava, Kawi (from ancient Tamil script) and Rencong or Surat Ulu were used to write Old Malay, until they were replaced by Jawi during Islamic missionary missions in the Malay Archipelago.


title: ASEAN

text: Historical European colonial influence to various ASEAN countries, including French Indochina (present-day Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia), British Burma, Malaya and Borneo (present-day Myanmar, Malaysia & Singapore, and Borneo), Dutch East Indies (present day Indonesia), Spanish East Indies (present-day Philippines and various other colonies), and Portuguese Timor (present-day Timor-Leste) influenced all Southeast Asian countries, with only Thailand (then Siam) being the only Southeast Asian country not formed from a prior European colony. Siam served as a convenient buffer state, sandwiched between British Burma and French Indochina, but its kings had to contend with unequal treaties as well as British and French political interference and territorial losses after the Franco-Siamese War in 1893 and the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909. Under European colonization, Southeast Asian nations were introduced to European religions and technologies, as well as the Latin alphabet.


title: ASEAN

text: The Japanese Empire, in the vein of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere concept, sought to unite and create a pan-Asian identity against Western colonial occupation, but Japan's alliance with the Axis powers in World War II soured relations between many colonies of Europe and the United States. Atomic bombings of Japan eventuated in decolonization movements throughout the Southeast Asian region, resulting in mostly independent ASEAN states today.


title: ASEAN

text: On 15 December 2008, member states met in Jakarta to launch a charter, signed in November 2007, to move closer to "an EU-style community". The charter turned ASEAN into a legal entity and aimed to create a single free-trade area for the region encompassing 500 million people. President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated: "This is a momentous development when ASEAN is consolidating, integrating, and transforming itself into a community. It is achieved while ASEAN seeks a more vigorous role in Asian and global affairs at a time when the international system is experiencing a seismic shift". Referring to climate change and economic upheaval, he concluded: "Southeast Asia is no longer the bitterly divided, war-torn region it was in the 1960s and 1970s".


title: ASEAN

text: The financial crisis of 2007–2008 was seen as a threat to the charter's goals, and also set forth the idea of a proposed human rights body to be discussed at a future summit in February 2009. This proposition caused controversy, as the body would not have the power to impose sanctions or punish countries which violated citizens' rights and would, therefore, be limited in effectiveness. The body was established later in 2009 as the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). In November 2012, the commission adopted the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration.


title: ASEAN

text: In response to pandemics, ASEAN has coordinated with ASEAN+3 and other actors to create a regional public health response.


title: ASEAN

text: During the SARS outbreak, ASEAN and ASEAN+3 worked together to devise a response to the outbreak. Immediate and short-to-medium term measures were devised. The parties agreed to enhance sharing of best practices against the disease while also agreeing to bolster collaboration between their respective health authorities and harmonize travel procedures to ensure that proper health screening would occur. In addition, China offered to contribute $1.2 million to the ASEAN SARS fund, made both to show that it was willing to cooperate with the rest of the region and make amends for its withholding of information during the initial stages of the outbreak.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN held a special meeting between ASEAN and ASEAN+3 health ministers on May 8, 2009 on responding to the H1N1 pandemic. At this meeting, it was agreed that hotlines would be established between public health authorities, joint response teams would be formed, and ongoing research efforts would be bolstered.


title: ASEAN

text: Since 2017, political, military and ethnic affairs in Myanmar have posed unusual challenges for ASEAN, creating precedent-breaking situations and threatening the traditions and unity of the group, and its global standing—with ASEAN responses indicating possible fundamental change in the nature of the organization.


title: ASEAN

text: The Rohingya genocide erupting in Myanmar in August 2017—killing thousands of Rohingya people in Myanmar, driving most into neighboring Bangladesh, and continuing for months—created a global outcry demanding ASEAN take action against the civilian-military coalition government of Myanmar, which had long discriminated against the Rohingya, and had launched the 2017 attacks upon them.


title: ASEAN

text: As the Rohingya were predominantly Muslim (in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar), and the ethnic cleansing was framed in religious terms, other largely-Muslim ASEAN nations (particularly Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei) objected, some strongly—and also objected to the burden of Rohingya refugees arriving on their shores (as did ASEAN neighbors Buddhist-dominated Thailand and Muslim-dominated observer-nation Bangladesh


title: ASEAN

text: Myanmar's civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, also reportedly asked ASEAN for help with the Rohingya crisis, in March 2018, but was rebuffed by ASEAN's chair, who said it was an "internal matter."


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN had a longstanding firm policy of "non-interference in the internal affairs of member nations," and was reluctant, as an organization, to take sides in the conflict, or act materially.


title: ASEAN

text: Internal and international pressure mounted for ASEAN to take a firmer stance on the Rohingya crisis, and by late 2018, the group's global credibility was threatened by its inaction.


title: ASEAN

text: In response, ASEAN began to put pressure on Myanmar to be less hostile to the Rohingya, and to hold accountable those responsible for atrocities against them.


title: ASEAN

text: However ASEAN's positions on the issue largely divided on religious lines, with Muslim nations siding more with the Rohingya, while Buddhist nations initially sided more with Myanmar's government, threatening a sectarian division of ASEAN. Authoritarian ASEAN nations, too (mostly Buddhist), were less enthusiastic than democratic ASEAN nations (mostly Muslim), about holding Myanmar officials accountable for crimes against their Rohingya minority.


title: ASEAN

text: But, by late-2018, most ASEAN nations had begun to advocate for a more forceful ASEAN response to the Rohingya crisis, and a harder line against Myanmar—breaking with the group's traditional policy of "non-interference" in members' "internal affairs"—a break emphasized by the Rohingya crisis being formally placed on the December 2018 ASEAN summit agenda.


title: ASEAN

text: In early 2019, Bangladesh suggested that Myanmar create a safe haven for the Rohingya within its borders, under ASEAN supervision (later expanding that idea to include India, China and Japan among the supervisors).


title: ASEAN

text: In mid-2019, ASEAN was heavily criticized by human rights organizations for a report, which ASEAN commissioned, which turned out to praise Myanmar's work on Rohingya repatriation, while glossing over atrocities and abuses against the Rohingya.


title: ASEAN

text: The June 2019 ASEAN summit was shaken by the Malaysian foreign minister's declaration that persons responsible for the abuses of the Rohingya be prosecuted and punished—conduct unusually undiplomatic at ASEAN summits. ASEAN pressed Myanmar for a firm timeline for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar—pressuring Myanmar to provide "safety and security for all communities in Rakhine State as effectively as possible and facilitate the voluntary return of displaced persons in a safe, secure and dignified manner."


title: ASEAN

text: In August 2019, the annual ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting concluded with a joint communique calling on Myanmar's government to guarantee the safety of all Rohingya—both in Myanmar and in exile—and pushed for more dialogue with the refugees about their repatriation to Myanmar. But later that month ASEAN's Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) supported Myanmar's "efforts" on repatriation, with aid, restraining some members' desire for more intrusive proposals.


title: ASEAN

text: By January 2020, ASEAN had made little progress to prepare safe conditions for the Rohingyas' return to Myanmar.


title: ASEAN

text: On 1 February 2021, the day before a newly elected slate of civilian leaders was to take office in Myanmar, a military junta overthrew Myanmar's civilian government in a coup d'etat, declaring a national state of emergency, imposing martial law, arresting elected civilian leaders, violently clamping down on dissent, and replacing civilian government with the military's appointees.


title: ASEAN

text: Widespread protests and resistance erupted, and elements of the civilian leadership formed an underground "National Unity Government" (NUG). Global opposition to the coup emerged, and global pressure was brought on ASEAN to take action.


title: ASEAN

text: Initially, ASEAN remained detached from the controversy, though Muslim-dominated members (mostly democracies, already vocal against the Rohingya genocide) expressed strong objection to the coup, while the mostly-Buddhist authoritarian members of ASEAN remained quiet.


title: ASEAN

text: In April 2021, in the first-ever ASEAN summit called to deal primarily with a domestic crisis in a member state, ASEAN leaders met with Myanmar's coup leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and agreed to a five-point consensus solution to the crisis in Myanmar:


title: ASEAN

text: The ASEAN agreement with Myanmar drew strong criticism from over 150 human rights organizations for its lax approach, yet the Myanmar junta did not comply with any of the points of the plan.


title: ASEAN

text: On 18 June 2021, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) — in a rare move, with a nearly unanimous resolution — condemned Myanmar's coup, and called for an arms embargo against the country. The UNGA consulted with ASEAN and integrated most of ASEAN's 5-point consensus into the resolution (adding demands that the junta release all political prisoners). But, while Communist Vietnam voted "yes," along with the ASEAN democracies (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines), most authoritarian ASEAN states (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Brunei) abstained.


title: ASEAN

text: In October 2021, despite its consensus agreement with ASEAN, Myanmar's junta refused to allow ASEAN representatives to speak with Myanmar's deposed and imprisoned civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.


title: ASEAN

text: Following lobbying by the United Nations, United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and other nations, ASEAN declined to invite Myanmar's Gen. Hlaing to represent Myanmar at ASEAN's October 2021 summit — the first time in ASEAN's history that it did not invite a political leader from a member nation to one of its summits. Nor did ASEAN invite a representative of Myanmar's underground National Unity Government, saying it would consider inviting a non-political representative of the country, instead, (though none was actually invited).


title: ASEAN

text: The unusual ASEAN action was widely seen as a major setback for the Myanmar junta's attempt to achieve global recognition as the legitimate government of Myanmar, and a sign of broader change in the behavior and role of ASEAN.


title: ASEAN

text: With perceptions that there have been multiple incursions into the South China Sea by China, with land, islands and resources all having had previous overlapping claims between Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and various other countries, China's claim into the region is late and is seen as incursive by many southeast Asian countries as of 2022, potentially a reflection of the threat of Chinese expansionism into the region. This follows the infamous 11 dash line that was produced by the Republic of China (Taiwan), followed by the infamous 9-dash line by the People's Republic of China. ASEAN sought for a more unified response against what it perceived to be Chinese penetration and hegemony into the region. There have been attempts to counterbalance the sway of China by attempting to align with other nations such as Western powers. The Chinese (and also Taiwan) have employed several strategies in an attempt to wrestle hold of South China Sea islands, such as Chinese salami slicing strategy, and cabbage tactics from China. There has also been calls to end Taiwan's illegal military actions in the South China Sea, called the East Sea in Vietnamese. Additionally, China passed a law in January 2021 allowing its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels, causing greater concern amongst ASEAN states. It is considered that the Cham people, indigenous to Central and South Vietnam, were the 'ancient rulers of the South China Sea', having had conducted extensive trade and maritime routes throughout the Southeast Asian region.


title: ASEAN

text: , the population of the ASEAN was about 655 million people (8.5% of the world population). In 2019, 55.2 million children were age 0-4 and 46.3 million were older than 65 in the ASEAN. This corresponds to 8.4% and 7.1% of the total ASEAN population. The region's population growth is 1.1% per year with Thailand being the smallest at 0.2% per year, and Cambodia being the largest at 1.9% per year. ASEAN's sex ratio is 99.6, with 326.4 million males and 327.8 million females.


title: ASEAN

text: The ASEAN contains about 31 urban areas with populations of over one million. The largest urban area in the ASEAN is Jakarta followed by Manila, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Bandung, Hanoi, Surabaya, Yangon, and Singapore, all with an urban population of over 5 million. Over 49.5% or 324 million people live in urban areas.


title: ASEAN

text: The "ASEAN Way" refers to a methodology or approach to solving issues that respect Southeast Asia's cultural norms. Masilamani and Peterson summarise it as "a working process or style that is informal and personal. Policymakers constantly utilise compromise, consensus, and consultation in the informal decision-making process... it above all prioritises a consensus-based, non-conflictual way of addressing problems. Quiet diplomacy allows ASEAN leaders to communicate without bringing the discussions into the public view. Members avoid the embarrassment that may lead to further conflict." It has been said that the merits of the ASEAN Way might "be usefully applied to global conflict management".


title: ASEAN

text: However, critics have argued that such an approach can be only applied to Asian countries, to specific cultural norms and understandings notably, due to a difference in mindset and level of tension.


title: ASEAN

text: Critics object, claiming that the ASEAN Way's emphasis on consultation, consensus, and non-interference forces the organisation to adopt only those policies which satisfy the lowest common denominator. Decision-making by consensus requires members to see eye-to-eye before ASEAN can move forward on an issue. Members may not have a common conception of the meaning of the ASEAN Way. Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos emphasize non-interference while older member countries focus on co-operation and co-ordination. These differences hinder efforts to find common solutions to particular issues, but also make it difficult to determine when collective action is appropriate in a given situation.


title: ASEAN

text: Beginning in 1997, heads of each member state adopted the ASEAN Vision 2020 during the group's 30th anniversary meeting held in Kuala Lumpur. As a means for the realisation of a single ASEAN community, this vision provides provisions on peace and stability, a nuclear-free region, closer economic integration, human development, sustainable development, cultural heritage, being a drug-free region, environment among others. The vision also aimed to "see an outward-looking ASEAN playing a pivotal role in the international fora, and advancing ASEAN's common interests".


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN Vision 2020 was formalised and made comprehensive through the Bali Concord II in 2003. Three major pillars of a single ASEAN community were established: Political-Security Community (APSC), Economic Community (AEC) and Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC). To fully embody the three pillars as part of the 2015 integration, blueprints for APSC and ASCC were subsequently adopted in 2009 in Cha-am, Thailand. The ASEAN Community, initially planned to commence by 2020, was accelerated to begin by 31 December 2015. It was decided during the 12th ASEAN Summit in Cebu in 2007.


title: ASEAN

text: At the 23rd ASEAN Summit in November 2013, leaders decided to develop a post-2015 Vision and created the High-Level Task Force (HLTF) that consists of ten high-level representatives from all member states. The Vision was adopted at the 27th Summit in November 2015 in Kuala Lumpur. The ASEAN community would revise and renew its vision every ten years to provide a framework for continuous development and further integration.


title: ASEAN

text: The terms in the post-2015 Vision are divided into four subcategories, namely APSC, AEC, ASCC, and Moving Forward. APSC issues are covered under articles 7 and 8. The former generally states the community's overall aspiration to aim for a united, inclusive and resilient community. It also puts human and environmental security as crucial points. Deepening engagement with both internal and external parties are also stressed to contribute to international peace, security and stability. The "Moving Forward" subcategory implies the acknowledgement of weaknesses of the institution's capacity to process and coordinate ASEAN work. Strengthening ASEAN Secretariat and other ASEAN organs and bodies is therefore desired. There is also a call for a higher level of ASEAN institutional presence at the national, regional and international levels.


title: ASEAN

text: Additionally, ASEAN institutional weakness has been further amplified by the ineffectiveness of its initiatives in fighting against COVID-19. ASEAN has been making painstaking efforts to combat the pandemic by establishing both intra and extra-regional ad hoc agencies such as theASEAN-China Ad-Hoc Health Ministers Joint Task Force, the Special ASEAN Summit on the COVID-19, COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund, and the Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit on COVID-19. These mechanisms aim to facilitate senior discussions among regional actors on how to contain the pandemic's spread and reduce its negative impacts. However, their practical implementations are still insignificant when the cooperation among member states is insubstantial, as illustrated by the polarisation of their COVID-19 policies and the high number of cases and deaths in the region.


title: ASEAN

text: The AEC aims to "implement economic integration initiatives" to create a single market for member states. The blueprint that serves as a comprehensive guide for the establishment of the community was adopted on 20 November 2007 at the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore. Its characteristics include a single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region, a region of fair economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy. The areas of cooperation include human resources development, recognition of professional qualifications, closer consultation economic policies, enhanced infrastructure and communications connectivity, integrating industries for regional sourcing, and strengthening private sector involvement. Through the free movement of skilled labour, goods, services and investment, ASEAN would rise globally as one market, thus increasing its competitiveness and opportunities for development.


title: ASEAN

text: During the 14th ASEAN Summit, the group adopted the APSC Blueprint. This document is aimed at creating a robust political-security environment within ASEAN, with programs and activities outlined to establish the APSC by 2016. It is based on the ASEAN Charter, the ASEAN Security Community Plan of Action, and the Vientiane Action Program. The APSC aims to create a sense of responsibility toward comprehensive security and a dynamic, outward-looking region in an increasingly integrated and interdependent world.


title: ASEAN

text: The ASEAN Defence Industry Collaboration (ADIC) was proposed at the 4th ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) on 11 May 2010 in Hanoi. It has the purpose, among others, to reduce defence imports from non-ASEAN countries by half and to further develop the defence industry in the region. It was formally adopted on the next ADMM on 19 May 2011, in Jakarta, Indonesia. The main focus is to industrially and technologically boost the security capability of ASEAN, consistent with the principles of flexibility and non-binding and voluntary participation among the member states. The concept revolves around education and capability-building programs to develop the skills and capabilities of the workforce, production of capital for defence products, and the provision of numerous services to address the security needs of each member state. It also aims to develop an intra-ASEAN defence trade. ADIC aims to establish a strong defence industry relying on the local capabilities of each member state and limit annual procurement from external original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Countries like the US, Germany, Russia, France, Italy, UK, China, South Korea, Israel, and the Netherlands are among the major suppliers to ASEAN. ASEAN defence budget rose by 147% from 2004 to 2013 and is expected to rise further in the future. Factors affecting the increase include economic growth, ageing equipment, and the plan to strengthen the establishment of the defence industry. ASEANAPOL is also established to enhance cooperation on law enforcement and crime control among police forces of member states.


title: ASEAN

text: However, the unequal level of capabilities among the member states in the defence industry and the lack of established defence trade pose challenges. Before the adoption of the ADIC concept, the status of the defence industry base in each of the member states was at a different level. Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand are among the top member states with an established defence industry base, but they possess different levels of capacity. The remaining member states have yet to develop and enhance their capabilities. Indonesia and Singapore are among the most competitive players; the former is the only one recognised as one of the top 100 global defence suppliers from between 2010 and 2013. ASEAN member states purchase virtually no defence products from within ASEAN. Singapore purchases products from Germany, France, and Israel. Malaysia purchased only 0.49% from ASEAN, Indonesia 0.1%, and Thailand 8.02%.


title: ASEAN

text: The ASEAN Convention on Counter-Terrorism (ACCT) serves as a framework for regional cooperation to counter, prevent, and suppress terrorism and deepen counter-terrorism cooperation. It was signed by ASEAN leaders in 2007. On 28 April 2011, Brunei ratified the convention and a month later, the convention came into force. Malaysia became the tenth member state to ratify ACCT on 11 January 2013.


title: ASEAN

text: The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) was also adopted during the 14th ASEAN Summit. It envisions an "ASEAN Community that is people-centered and socially responsible with a view to achieving enduring solidarity and unity among the countries and peoples of ASEAN by forging a common identity and building a caring and sharing society which is inclusive and harmonious where the well-being, livelihood, and welfare of the peoples are enhanced". Among its focus areas include human development, social welfare and protection, social justice and rights, environmental sustainability, building the ASEAN identity, and narrowing the development gap.


title: ASEAN

text: To track the progress of the AEC, a compliance tool called the AEC Scorecard was developed based on the EU Internal Market Scorecard. It is the only one in effect and is expected to serve as an unbiased assessment tool to measure the extent of integration and the economic health of the region. It is expected to provide relevant information about regional priorities, and thus foster productive, inclusive, and sustainable growth. It makes it possible to monitor the implementation of ASEAN agreements, and the achievement of milestones indicated in the AEC Strategic Schedule. The scorecard outlines specific actions that must be undertaken collectively and individually to establish AEC by 2015. To date, two official scorecards have been published, one in 2010, and the other in 2012. However, the scorecard is purely quantitative, as it only examines whether a member state has performed the AEC task or not. The more "yes" answers, the higher the score.


title: ASEAN

text: While Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand have eliminated 99.65% of their tariff lines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam have decreased tariffs on 98.86% of their lines to the 0-5% tariff range in 2010, and are projected to eliminate tariffs on these goods by 2015, with the ability to do so for a few import duty lines until 2018. A recent study by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited has projected that five of the top fifteen manufacturing locations in the world will be in ASEAN by 2018. Furthermore, by 2050, ASEAN is expected to be the fourth-largest economy in the world (after the European Union, the US, and China).


title: ASEAN

text: The AEC envisions the free flow of overseas labour. However, receiving countries may require would-be workers to take licensing examinations in those countries regardless of whether or not the worker has a professional license from their home country. Singapore is a major destination for skilled migrants from other ASEAN countries, mostly from Malaysia and the Philippines. Total employment there doubled between 1992 and 2008 from 1.5 million to three million, and the number of foreign workers almost tripled, from fewer than 400,000 to nearly 1.1 million. High-skilled foreign talents (customer service, nursing, engineering, IT) earn at least several thousand US dollars a month and with a credential (usually a college degree) receive employment passes. In recent years, Singapore has been slowly cutting down the number of foreign workers to challenge companies to upgrade their hiring criteria and offer more jobs to local residents.


title: ASEAN

text: Narrowing the Development Gap (NDG) is the framework for addressing disparities among, and within, member states where pockets of underdevelopment exist. Under NDG, ASEAN has continued to coordinate closely with other sub-regional cooperation frameworks (e.g., BIMP-EAGA, IMT-GT, GMS, Mekong programs), viewing them as "equal partners in the development of regional production and distribution networks" in the AEC, and as a platform to "mainstream social development issues in developing and implementing projects" in the context of the ASCC.


title: ASEAN

text: The six-year Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) Work Plans have been developed to assist Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, as well as other sub-regions to ensure quick growth. The First IAI Work Plan was implemented from 2002 to 2008. The second plan (2009-2015) supports the goals of the ASEAN Community and is composed of 182 prescribed actions, which includes studies, training programs, and policy implementation support, conducted through projects supported by older ASEAN member states, and ASEAN's Dialogue partners and external parties. The IAI Work Plan is patterned after and supports the key program areas in the three ASEAN Community Blueprints: ASPC, AEC, and ASCC. The IAI Task Force, composed of representatives of the Committee of Permanent Representatives and its working group from all member states, is in charge of providing general advice and policy guidelines and directions in the design and implementation of the plan. All member states are represented in the IAI Task Force, chaired by representatives of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam. The ASEAN Secretariat, in particular through the IAI and NDG Division, supports the implementation and management of the IAI Work Plan and coordinates activities related to sub-regional frameworks. The division works closely with the Dialogue Partners, and international agencies, to develop strategies and programs to assist in promoting and implementing IAI and NDG activities in ASEAN.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN's planned integration has challenged its citizens to embrace a regional identity. It delivers a challenge to construct dynamic institutions and foster sufficient amount of social capital. The underlying assumption is that the creation of a regional identity is of special interest to ASEAN and the intent of the 2020 Vision policy document was to reassert the belief in a regional framework designed as an action plan related to human development and civic empowerment. Accordingly, these assumptions will be the basis for recommendations and strategies in developing a participatory regional identity.


title: ASEAN

text: Part of the work towards the ASEAN Economic Community is the integration of the energy systems of the ASEAN member states. The blueprint for this integration is provided by the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC). APAEC is managed by the ASEAN Center for Energy.


title: ASEAN

text: As trade is liberalised with the integration in 2015, the need arises for ASEAN banking institutions to accommodate and expand their services to an intra-ASEAN market. Experts, however, have already forecast a shaky economic transition, especially for smaller players in the banking and financial services industry. Two separate reports by Standard & Poor's (S&P) outline the challenges that ASEAN financial institutions face as they prepare for the 2020 banking integration. The reports point out that overcrowded banking sector in the Philippines is expected to feel the most pressure as the integration welcomes tighter competition with bigger and more established foreign banks. As a result, there needs to be a regional expansion by countries with a small banking sector to lessen the impact of the post-integration environment. In a follow-up report, S&P recently cited the Philippines for "shoring up its network bases and building up capital ahead of the banking integration – playing defence and strengthening their domestic networks".


title: ASEAN

text: The roadmap for financial integration is the latest regional initiative that aims to strengthen local self-help and support mechanisms. The roadmap's implementation would contribute to the realisation of the AEC. Adoption of a common currency, when conditions are ripe, could be the final stage of the AEC. The roadmap identifies approaches and milestones in capital market development, capital account and financial services liberalisation, and ASEAN currency cooperation. Capital market development entails promoting institutional capacity as well as the facilitation of greater cross-border collaboration, linkages, and harmonisation between capital markets. Orderly capital account liberalisation would be promoted with adequate safeguards against volatility and systemic risks. To expedite the process of financial services liberalisation, ASEAN has agreed on a positive list modality and adopted milestones to facilitate negotiations. Currency cooperation would involve the exploration of possible currency arrangements, including an ASEAN currency payment system for trade in local goods to reduce the demand for US dollars and to help promote stability of regional currencies, such as by settling intra-ASEAN trade using regional currencies.


title: ASEAN

text: In regards to a common currency, ASEAN leaders agreed in November 1999 to create the establishment of currency swaps and repurchase agreements as a credit line against future financial shocks. In May 2000, ASEAN finance ministers agreed to plan for closer cooperation through the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI). The CMI has two components, an expanded ASEAN Swap Arrangement (ASA), and a network of bilateral swap arrangements among the ASEAN Plus Three. The ASA preceded the 1997 Asian financial crisis and was originally established by the monetary authorities of the five founding member states to help meet temporary liquidity problems. The ASA now includes all ten member states with an expanded facility of US$1 billion. In recognition of the economic interdependence of East Asia, which has combined foreign exchange reserves amounting to about US$1 trillion, a network of bilateral swap arrangements and repurchase agreements among the ASEAN Plus Three has been agreed upon. The supplementary facility aims to provide temporary financing for member states with balance-of-payments difficulties. In 2009, 16 bilateral swap arrangements (BSAs) were concluded with a combined amount of about US$35.5 billion. The CMI was signed on 9 December 2009 and took effect on 20 March 2014 while the amended version, the multilateralisation of CMI (CMIM), was on 17 July 2014. The CMIM is a multilateral currency swap arrangement governed by a single contractual agreement. In addition, an independent regional surveillance unit called the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) was established to monitor and analyse economies and to support the CMIM decision-making process. The amendments would allow access for the auction of a crisis prevention facility. These amendments are expected to fortify CMIM as the region's financial safety net in the event of any potential or actual liquidity difficulty.


title: ASEAN

text: During peacetime, the AMRO would conduct annual consultations with individual member economies and prepare quarterly-consolidated reports on the macroeconomic assessment of the ASEAN+3 region and individual member countries. In a time of crisis, the AMRO would prepare recommendations on any swap request based on macroeconomic analysis of a member state and monitor the use and impact of funds once an application is approved. AMRO was officially incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in Singapore on 20 April 2011. Governance of AMRO is being exercised by the executive committee (EC) and its operational direction by the Advisory Panel (AP). AMRO is currently headed by Dr Yoichi Nemoto of Japan, who is serving his second two-year term until 26 May 2016.


title: ASEAN

text: Member states recognise the importance of strengthening food security to maintain stability and prosperity in the region. As ASEAN moves towards AEC and beyond, food security would be an integral part of the community-building agenda. Strengthened food security is even more relevant in light of potentially severe risks from climate change with agriculture and fisheries being the most affected industries.


title: ASEAN

text: Part of the aim of ASEAN integration is to achieve food security collectively via trade in rice and maize. Trade facilitation measures and the harmonisation/equivalency of food regulation and control standards would reduce the cost of trade in food products. While specialisation and revealed comparative and competitive indices point to complementarities between trade patterns among the member states, intra-ASEAN trade in agriculture is quite small, something that integration could address. The MARKET project would provide flexible and demand-driven support to the ASEAN Secretariat while bringing more private-sector and civil-society input into regional agriculture policy dialogue. By building an environment that reduces barriers to trade, ASEAN trade would increase, thereby decreasing the risk of food price crisis.


title: ASEAN

text: The group sought economic integration by creating the AEC by the end of 2015 that established a single market. The average economic growth of member states from 1989 to 2009 was between 3.8% and 7%. This was greater than the average growth of APEC, which was 2.8%. The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), established on 28 January 1992, includes a Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) to promote the free flow of goods between member states. ASEAN had only six members when it was signed. The new member states (Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia) have not fully met AFTA's obligations, but are officially considered part of the agreement as they were required to sign it upon entry into ASEAN, and were given longer time frames to meet AFTA's tariff reduction obligations. The next steps are to create a single market and production base, a competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region that is fully integrated into the global economy. Since 2007, ASEAN countries have gradually lowered their import duties to member states, with a target of zero import duties by 2016.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN countries have many economic zones (industrial parks, eco-industrial parks, special economic zones, technology parks, and innovation districts) (see reference for comprehensive list from 2015).


title: ASEAN

text: In 2018, eight of the ASEAN members are among the world's outperforming economies, with positive long-term prospect for the region. ASEAN's Secretariat projects that the regional body will grow to become the world's fourth largest economy by 2030.


title: ASEAN

text: The ASEAN Centre for Energy publishes the ASEAN Energy Outlook every five years, analysing and promoting the integration of national energy systems across the region. The sixth edition was published in 2020.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN planned to establish a single market based upon the four freedoms by the end of 2015, with the goal of ensuring free flow of goods, services, skilled labour, and capital. The ASEAN Economic Community was formed in 2015, but the group deferred about 20% of the harmonization provisions needed to create a common market and set a new deadline of 2025.


title: ASEAN

text: Until the end of 2010, intra-ASEAN trade was still low as trade involved mainly exports to countries outside the region, with the exception of Laos and Myanmar, whose foreign trade was ASEAN-oriented. In 2009, realised foreign direct investment (FDI) was US$37.9 billion and increased two-fold in 2010 to US$75.8 billion. 22% of FDI came from the European Union, followed by ASEAN countries (16%), and by Japan and the United States.


title: ASEAN

text: The ASEAN Framework Agreement on Trade in Services (AFAS) was adopted at the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in December 1995. Under the agreement, member states enter into successive rounds of negotiations to liberalise trade in services with the aim of submitting increasingly higher levels of commitment. ASEAN has concluded seven packages of commitments under AFAS.


title: ASEAN

text: Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) have been agreed upon by ASEAN for eight professions: physicians, dentists, nurses, architects, engineers, accountants, surveyors, and tourism professionals. Individuals in these professions will be free to work in any ASEAN states effective 31 December 2015.


title: ASEAN

text: In addition, six member states (Malaysia, Vietnam (2 exchanges), Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore) have collaborated on integrating their stock exchanges, which includes 70% of its transaction values with the goal to compete with international exchanges.


title: ASEAN

text: Single market will also include the ASEAN Single Aviation Market (ASEAN-SAM), the region's aviation policy geared towards the development of a unified and single aviation market in Southeast Asia. It was proposed by the ASEAN Air Transport Working Group, supported by the ASEAN Senior Transport Officials Meeting, and endorsed by the ASEAN Transport Ministers. It is expected to liberalise air travel between member states allowing ASEAN airlines to benefit directly from the growth in air travel, and also free up tourism, trade, investment, and service flows. Since 1 December 2008, restrictions on the third and fourth freedoms of the air between capital cities of member states for air passenger services have been removed, while from 1 January 2009, full liberalisation of air freight services in the region took effect. On 1 January 2011, full liberalisation on fifth freedom traffic rights between all capital cities took effect. This policy supersedes existing unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral air services agreements among member states which are inconsistent with its provisions.


title: ASEAN

text: The concept of an Asian Currency Unit (ACU) started in the middle of the 1990s, prior to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It is a proposed basket of Asian currencies, similar to the European Currency Unit, which was the precursor of the Euro. The Asian Development Bank is responsible for exploring the feasibility and construction of the basket. Since the ACU is being considered to be a precursor to a common currency, it has a dynamic outlook of the region. The overall goal of a common currency is to contribute to the financial stability of a regional economy, including price stability. It means lower cost of cross-border business through the elimination of currency risk. Greater flows of intra-trade would put pressure on prices, resulting in cheaper goods and services. Individuals benefit not only from the lowering of prices, they save by not having to change money when travelling, by being able to compare prices more readily, and by the reduced cost of transferring money across borders.


title: ASEAN

text: However, there are conditions for a common currency: the intensity of intra-regional trade and the convergence of macroeconomic conditions. Substantial intra-ASEAN trade (which is growing, partly as a result of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and the ASEAN Economic Community.) and economic integration is an incentive for a monetary union. Member states currently trade more with other countries (80%) than among themselves (20%). Therefore, their economies are more concerned about currency stability against major international currencies, like the US dollar. On macroeconomic conditions, member states have different levels of economic development, capacity, and priorities that translate into different levels of interest and readiness. Monetary integration, however, implies less control over national monetary and fiscal policy to stimulate the economy. Therefore, greater convergence in macroeconomic conditions is being enacted to improve conditions and confidence in a common currency. Other concerns include weaknesses in the financial sectors, inadequacy of regional-level resource pooling mechanisms and institutions required to form and manage a currency union, and lack of political preconditions for monetary co-operation and a common currency.


title: ASEAN

text: In 1992, the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme was adopted as a schedule for phasing out tariffs to increase the "region's competitive advantage as a production base geared for the world market". This law would act as the framework for the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), which is an agreement by member states concerning local manufacturing in ASEAN. It was signed on 28 January 1992 in Singapore.


title: ASEAN

text: Free trade initiatives in ASEAN are spearheaded by the implementation of the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) and the Agreement on Customs. These agreements are supported by several sector bodies to plan and to execute free trade measures, guided by the provisions and the requirements of ATIGA and the Agreement on Customs. They form a backbone for achieving targets of the AEC Blueprint and establishing the ASEAN Economic Community by the end of 2015.


title: ASEAN

text: On 26 August 2007, ASEAN stated its aim of completing free trade agreements (FTA) with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand by 2013, which is in line with the start of the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015. In November 2007, ASEAN states signed the ASEAN Charter, a constitution governing relations among member states and establishing the group itself as an international legal entity. During the same year, the Cebu Declaration on East Asian Energy Security was signed by ASEAN and the other members of the EAS (Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea), which pursues energy security by finding energy alternatives to fossil fuels.


title: ASEAN

text: On 27 February 2009, an FTA with Australia and New Zealand was signed. It is believed that this FTA would boost combined GDP across the 12 countries by more than US$48 billion over the period between 2000 and 2020. The agreement with China created the ASEAN–China Free Trade Area (ACFTA), which went into full effect on 1 January 2010. In addition, ASEAN was noted to be negotiating an FTA with the European Union. Bilateral trade with India crossed the US$70 billion target in 2012 (target was to reach the level by 2015). Taiwan has also expressed interest in an agreement with ASEAN but needs to overcome diplomatic objections from China.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN, together with its six major trading partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea), began the first round of negotiations on 26–28 February 2013, in Bali, Indonesia on the establishment of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is an extension of ASEAN Plus Three and Six that covers 45% of the world's population and about a third of the world's total GDP.


title: ASEAN

text: In 2017, ASEAN and Canada initiated exploratory discussions for an ASEAN-Canada free trade agreement.


title: ASEAN

text: In 2019, Reuters highlighted a mechanism used by traders to avoid the 70% tariff on ethanol imported into China from the United States, involving importing the fuel into Malaysia, mixing it with at least 40% ASEAN-produced fuel, and re-exporting it to China tariff-free under ACFTA rules.


title: ASEAN

text: Cross-border electricity trade in ASEAN has been limited, despite efforts since 1997 to establish an ASEAN Power Grid and associated trade. Electricity trade accounts for only about 5% of the generation, whereas trades in coal and gas are 86% and 53% respectively.


title: ASEAN

text: With the institutionalisation of visa-free travel between ASEAN member states, intra-ASEAN travel has escalated. In 2010, 47% or 34 million out of 73 million tourists in ASEAN member-states were from other ASEAN countries. Cooperation in tourism was formalised in 1976, following the formation of the Sub-Committee on Tourism (SCOT) under the ASEAN Committee on Trade and Tourism. The 1st ASEAN Tourism Forum was held on 18–26 October 1981 in Kuala Lumpur. In 1986, ASEAN Promotional Chapters for Tourism (APCT) were established in Hong Kong, West Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia/New Zealand, Japan, and North America.


title: ASEAN

text: Tourism has been one of the key growth sectors in ASEAN and has proven resilient amid global economic challenges. The wide array of tourist attractions across the region drew 109 million tourists to ASEAN in 2015, up by 34% compared to 81 million tourists in 2011. As of 2012, tourism was estimated to account for 4.6% of ASEAN GDP—10.9% when taking into account all indirect contributions. It directly employed 9.3 million people, or 3.2% of total employment, and indirectly supported some 25 million jobs. In addition, the sector accounted for an estimated 8% of total capital investment in the region. In January 2012, ASEAN tourism ministers called for the development of a marketing strategy. The strategy represents the consensus of ASEAN National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) on marketing directions for ASEAN moving forward to 2015. In the 2013 "Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index" (TTCI) report, Singapore placed 1st, Malaysia placed 8th, Thailand placed 9th, Indonesia placed 12th, Brunei placed 13th, Vietnam placed 16th, Philippines placed 17th, and Cambodia placed 20th as the top destinations of travellers in the Asia Pacific region.


title: ASEAN

text: 1981 The ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) was established. It is a regional meeting of NGOs, Ministers, sellers, buyers and journalists to promote the ASEAN countries as a single one tourist destination. The annual event 2019 in Ha Long marks the 38th anniversary and involves all the tourism industry sectors of the 10 member states of ASEAN: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It was organized by TTG Events from Singapore.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN maintains a global network of alliances, dialogue partners and diplomatic missions, and is involved in numerous international affairs. The organisation maintains good relationships on an international scale, particularly towards Asia-Pacific nations, and upholds itself as a neutral party in politics. It holds ASEAN Summits, where heads of government of each member states meet to discuss and resolve regional issues, as well as to conduct other meetings with countries outside the bloc to promote external relations and deal with international affairs. The first summit was held in Bali in 1976. The third summit was in Manila in 1987, and during this meeting, it was decided that the leaders would meet every five years. The fourth meeting was held in Singapore in 1992 where the leaders decided to meet more frequently, every three years. In 2001, it was decided that the organisation will meet annually to address urgent issues affecting the region. In December 2008, the ASEAN Charter came into force and with it, the ASEAN Summit will be held twice a year. The formal summit meets for three days, and usually includes internal organisation meeting, a conference with foreign ministers of the ASEAN Regional Forum, an ASEAN Plus Three meeting and ASEAN-CER, a meeting of member states with Australia and New Zealand.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN is a major partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, developing cooperation model with the organisation in the field of security, economy, finance, tourism, culture, environmental protection, development and sustainability. Additionally, the grouping has been closely aligned with China, cooperating across numerous areas, including economy, security, education, culture, technology, agriculture, human resource, society, development, investment, energy, transport, public health, tourism, media, environment, and sustainability. It is also the linchpin in the foreign policy of Australia and New Zealand, with the three sides being integrated into an essential alliance.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN also participates in the East Asia Summit (EAS), a pan-Asian forum held annually by the leaders of eighteen countries in the East Asian region, with ASEAN in a leadership position. Initially, membership included all member states of ASEAN plus China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand, but was expanded to include the United States and Russia at the Sixth EAS in 2011. The first summit was held in Kuala Lumpur on 14 December 2005, and subsequent meetings have been held after the annual ASEAN Leaders' Meeting. The summit has discussed issues including trade, energy, and security and the summit has a role in regional community building.


title: ASEAN

text: Other meetings include the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting that focus mostly on specific topics, such as defence or the environment, and are attended by ministers. The (ARF), which met for the first time in 1994, fosters dialogue and consultation, and to promote confidence-building and preventive diplomacy in the region. As of July 2007, it consists of twenty-seven participants that include all ASEAN member states, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, the EU, India, Japan, North and South Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, East Timor, the United States, and Sri Lanka. Taiwan has been excluded since the establishment of the ARF, and issues regarding the Taiwan Strait are neither discussed at ARF meetings nor stated in the ARF Chairman's Statements.


title: ASEAN

text: ASEAN also holds meetings with Europe during the Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM), an informal dialogue process initiated in 1996 with the intention of strengthening co-operation between the countries of Europe and Asia, especially members of the European Union and ASEAN in particular. ASEAN, represented by its secretariat, is one of the forty-five ASEM partners. It also appoints a representative to sit on the governing board of Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), a socio-cultural organisation associated with the meeting. Annual bilateral meetings between ASEAN and India, Russia and the United States are also held.


title: ASEAN

text: China and ASEAN have had a complex relationship over the years, as a powerful individual country and multinational organization. There have been periods of great success and collaboration for the two countries. As an organization, ASEAN has put forth many treaties, protocols and negotiations. Foreign minister of China, Wang Yi, reported in an address to ASEAN member states, that China has collaborated with the ASEAN countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, cooperated with ASEAN in protocols for nuclear disarmament, and that both China and ASEAN countries are each other's largest trading partner. All that was said in his speech in Jakarta highlighted the glorified moments of Chinese-ASEAN relations, stressing China’s good natured, neighborly behavior. ASEAN was one of China’s first supporters of the Belt and Road Initiative.