How will you utilize ASEAN Economic Community to your favor despite the

negative notions?
Integration of the ASEAN Market Renders the Increase of Demand for Legal
Professionals
By: Kadek Denny Baskara Adiputra
Fakultas Hukum Universitas Indonesia 2015

The ASEAN Economic Community or AEC was first brought up under the
ASEAN VISION 2020, pursuant to the tagline of ASEAN which is one vision,
one identity, and one community. This idea was further solidified in 2003
during the 9th ASEAN Summit in Bali. At that time, all leaders agreed upon
the notion that in order to achieve economic prosperity, one must work
together within an integrated market with none or little barriers to ensure
efficacy. Under this premise, countries were willing to cooperate in opening
up their barriers; be it quantitative limitations, import tax, or complicated
bureaucracy, by 2015 this would all be eliminated. The aim of this was nonother than to proliferate economic growth, increase foreign direct
investment, ease trade, and even create a free labor movement.
Based on the aim stated above, many argue that opening up our barriers
was the only way for the region of South-East Asia as an emerging market to
compete with the frontrunners of our global economy such as China, USA,
Japan, or the European Union. This was based on the fact that despite having
such a vast expense of resources, each nation individually would not be able
to make use of it efficiently, thus cooperation was needed. For example,
Indonesia is a well-known producer of raw rubber and the production rate is
currently more than enough to fulfill the domestic demands. Due to this
reason, the excess amount of raw rubber could be exported without barriers
to other countries such as Singapore. When this happens, then automatically
the price of goods would decrease as trading no longer requires such high
amount of tax or complicated bureaucracy in which it creates an efficient
trade. This is applicable to other goods including but not limited to
agriculture or textiles and apparels. Furthermore, this would create a
domino-effect since goods are easily distributed around the regions of
ASEAN, income and capital towards businesses who produce these goods
would increase and with more capitol, these producers would be more
capable in investing towards a more efficient production line incorporating
modern technology for the increase of quality and faster production process.
On the other hand, when AEC is implemented, skilled workers from all
regions of ASEAN would be free to roam to find the most suitable job as they
desire bringing forth benefits to not only their own nations in terms of tax,

but also to their preferred nation to work as they contribute directly towards
the economy when they work. All of this combined, would create an
integrated market capable of competing with other global powers.
Despite the benefits from AEC, negative notions also arise regarding to the
fact that certain countries are not ready for a free regional market. A free
market means that goods would be free to enter a country burdening local
producers that have only existed due to protectionist policies, labors would
be indiscriminately accepted regardless of their background or capacity to
work and whether they are skilled or not; all of this would broaden the
chances for disputes or problems to occur. Especially, developing countries
to begin with do not have an economy as robust as developed countries. This
means that most businesses inside a developing country are at the smallmedium enterprise scale. The characterization of these businesses are that
they are contingent on traditional labor, making them unable to compete
with large businesses with advanced production processes in terms of quality
and quantity. But this is a sacrifice that governments are willing to make as
in the long run our economy will develop and these business practitioners
could always be educated beforehand to make them at least aware of the
dangers they face. But the main negative notion that exists is the nature of a
free market is that it is free. This freedom cannot be limited and the
government cannot implement further protectionist policies such as
controlling the price of certain goods or limiting products that enter the
country. With this freedom, it means that conflict and disputes will certainly
arise. For example matters concerning workers conditions, wages or the
carriages of goods between countries would mean that there has to be clear
regulations regarding to these issues and when these regulations are
breached, the enforcement of law should occur. The main actor behind these
contracts and conflict resolution is legal professionals or lawyers. This is
where I plan to turn the negative notions of AEC in my favor as an aspiring
law student.
This particular negative notion renders it more than necessary to have
lawyers that are competent in practicing Inter-ASEAN Law. These lawyers are
the ones who facilitate the drafting of contracts and help proliferate foreign
direct investment. Furthermore, when a dispute arises for example from the
carriages of goods between the regions, these lawyers are the ones who
would defend a certain party through arbitration based on the
aforementioned contracts. Now, it will not be easy to compete with other
lawyers because AEC also makes it possible for foreign lawyers to practice in
our country, but I believe with determination, hard work, and planning this is
very possible.

Indonesian Lawyers should now be made prepared to be outward looking in

order to be able to compete. Outward looking means that they have to have
a global perspective where their field of work is no longer limited towards
their own country. They also need to be meticulous in finding working
opportunities. Moreover, a major problem for us would be the language
disadvantage that Indonesian Lawyers face as the mainly used languages
such as English is not native to us. But, we can overcome this with more
intense training on legal English, research, and writing and only then will
Indonesian Lawyers have the competitive edge to compete internationally,
and can finally turn the negative notions towards their favor.