Preparing for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will be the biggest challenge for Indonesia’s new foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, according to Nur Hassan Wirajuda who served as the country’s foreign minister between 2001 and 2009,Indonesia’s InvestAsian reported. The AEC is set to come into effect at the end of 2015, and aims to transform Southeast Asia into a single economic community. Some of the benefits include a free flow of labor and capital, reduced barriers to trade, and more opportunities to invest throughout ASEAN. The new union will be similar to the EU in some ways, but without a shared currency.
