Recently I was invited to the launch at Capitol Hill of the fourth edition of “ASEAN Matters for America/America Matters for ASEAN”, published jointly by the United States-ASEAN Business Council, the East-West Center and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies — Yusof Ishak Institute. The publication compiles facts and figures on ASEAN-US ties in the economy, investment, employment, business, diplomacy, security, education and tourism, as well as people-to-people interactions.  It is intended to provide an update on how the two sides contribute to mutual progress and growth and lays out very impressive data to illustrate this. Among these is that the ASEAN economy is the fifth largest in the world with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2.8 trillion and has projected annual growth of more than 5.5 percent. With a total value of ove...

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