ASEAN governments put forth the vision for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) with high ambition. As stated in the 2007 Blueprint, the AEC aims to achieve a single market and production base, a competitive economic region, equitable economic development and integration into the global economy. The Scorecard system was set up to gauge the implementation of the AEC initiatives, but it contains limitations. This paper offers an alternative rating system to complement the existing Scorecard system in tracking the progress of the AEC projects. We have designed a star-rating system and applied our rating criteria to the selected projects to evaluate their progress. This paper conducts in-depth studies on the three projects (the ASEAN Single Window, the ASEAN Highway Network and the ASEAN Power Grid) to identify the projects' major challenges, and give recommendations on how they can be further advanced. The study's limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

30 p.