CONCLUSION
ASEAN has long emphasised co-operation among
the member countries. Various initiatives in the
fields of political-security, economic and sociocultural have been carried out to further strengthen
the regional collaboration. Year 2015 marks an
important milestone for ASEAN as it aims to see
the emergence of the ASEAN Community. One of
the pillars, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC),
is the goal to attain regional economic integration
by 2015. Malaysia, as the elected ASEAN
chairman for 2015, has pledged its commitment
to lead ASEAN to achieve the goal [5].
Energy is the key ingredient to transform ASEAN
into a stable, secure, prosperous, competitive and
resilient economic region. The blueprint of AEC,
that puts emphasis on collaborative partnerships
in the field of energy, saw the birth of flagship
programmes, the APG and TAGP. Both APG and
TAGP, which called for co-operation to establish
interconnecting arrangements for electricity and
natural gas within ASEAN, seek to ensure regional
energy security while promoting the efficient
utilisation and sharing of resources [9].
Yet, despite relentless efforts to realise APG,
the full integration of ASEAN power grid has
not materialised. Factors such as cross-border
issues and lack of political will are among barriers
that have been hampering the progress of APG.
Fortunately, the recently announced pilot project,
Lao DPR, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore Power
Integration Project brings the ASEAN energy cooperation to a new height. This is a showcase of
economic co-operation among ASEAN countries. It
is envisaged that the success of project will pave
the way towards further multilateral cross-border
power trade in the region for a more resilient and
prosperous ASEAN.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors of this paper would like to sincerely
express their gratitude and appreciation to Tenaga
Nasional Berhad for giving permission to publish
this paper. The information presented and views
expressed herein this paper are solely those of
the authors and do not necessarily represent the
views of TNB and/or the management and staffs
of TNB.
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