ERIA's Executive Director, Professor Hidetoshi Nishimura, attended the 12th ASEAN Leadership Forum on "Forward ASEAN: One Community, One Vision, One people" on 26-27 April 2015, held in conjunction with the 26th ASEAN Summit in Malaysia and organized by Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI) to discuss the critical issues and challenges facing ASEAN.

The forum brought together government representatives, the business sector leaders, academia, and think tank leaders to debate the issues and driving forces shaping the future of ASEAN. This year's forum especially helped define ideas for a post 2015 vision for ASEAN.

Prof. Nishimura attended the session on "Deepening ASEAN Integration and Strengthening Competitiveness" on as a panelist.

He raised the issue of how ASEAN can maintain global expectations and he pointed out the three fundamental principles in the drive toward the AEC; convergent regulatory regimes, deepening institutional connectivity, and stronger collaboration and trust between the business sector and people in the 10 ASEAN member states. He also underscored the significance of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) in order to cope with the remaining issues of the AEC, saying that "we need to invest also towards a well-performing ASCC in order to have a well-performing AEC since a deeper sense of ASEAN commonality, belongingness and identity lies in the province of the ASCC."

Prof. Nishimura also took part in the forum 's opening ceremony on 26 April and met with Dato' Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia, Dato' Sri Abdul Wahid bin Omar, Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister's Department, and H.E.Mrs. Khemmani Pholsena, Minister of Industry and Commerce, Lao PDR.