Pushpanathan Sundram

Deputy Secretary General, ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)

ASEAN needs to stay relevant in a global context


We have already started to engage businesses, what we are doing now is focusing by sector… and the businesses are bringing up more and more issues for ASEAN to look at, but it’s a two way process, the governments will have to facilitate the business operations and helping businesses to go beyond borders in ASEAN but at the same time I think the businesses will have to play a bigger role in terms of leading economic integration – you can’t expect the government to do everything for you.

About Pushpanathan Sundram
Pushpanathan Sundram is responsible for the coordination and establishment of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. He is responsible for implementing the AEC Blueprint adopted by the ASEAN Leaders in 2007.

He oversees the forging of economic partnerships and free trade agreements with ASEAN’s Dialogue Partners, and in coordinating East Asia-wide economic integration initiatives involving ASEAN, Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. He is involved in the establishment and direction of the operations of the Macroeconomic and Finance Surveillance Office (MFSO) in the ASEAN Secretariat, which will undertake regional surveillance in the areas of macro-economics, finance, investment and trade, and support the surveillance requirements for the US$120 billion Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) involving the ASEAN and Plus Three countries of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

He received his Bachelor degree in Economics and Political Science from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1988 and a Master in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS, in 1994. Prior to joining the ASEAN Secretariat, he served the Ministry of Defence of Singapore for seven years.

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