It is reported that intra-regional trade in East Asia has recently reached around half of the total, which is comparable to that of NAFTA and slightly less than that of the EU. Bilateral and regional free trade agreements are spreading throughout Asia. In addition, ASEAN is accelerating the process for building the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.
It will be interesting to see how the present banking and other financial services change when a single market for goods and services is formulated in ASEAN. I hope the Governors can provide us with insights into developments of the AEC. With the globalization of the world's financial markets, large capital flows will continue to have a strong impact on open economies.