Academic conference held in Bangkok to discuss ASEAN Community in post 2015

BANGKOK, January 30 (TNA) - The Centre for ASEAN Studies, Thammasat University, has organised an academic conference on the ASEAN Community (AC) in post 2015, aimed to gather information from academics and the public sector on previous achievements and opinions on how ASEAN should move forward in its post 2015 period. The centre's director, Associated Professor Prapas Thepchatree, said that the formation of the AC is a long-term process and will not, actually, be finished in 2015 and Friday's conference was, thus, organised to review achievements having done by the public sector and to brainstorm ideas from academics on the way forward. According to the director, next challenges faced by member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the post 2015 period go to how to revitalise the 10-member bloc as a real people-oriented community, while a long-term focus should be on the development of ASEAN legislative and judicial mechanisms, along with its current administrative body. The academic conference was held at the Twin Tower Hotel in Bangkok, attended by about 30 participants from the academic and public sectors. (TNA)