Energy is key to realising the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)’s goal of a well-connected ASEAN to drive an integrated, competitive, and resilient region. However, energy also has long been a critical issue for ASEAN. The AEC’s establishment in late 2015 provides opportunities as well as challenges to meet the region’s primary energy requirement that has grown at an average of 3.5% annually between the period of 2007-2015.  The latest ASEAN Energy Outlook (5th AEO, 2017) has projected that following a business-as-usual scenario, in 2040, ASEAN is expected to require more than 2.3 times its energy demand in 2015 to meet its economic growth targets. 

In September 1980, ASEAN Economic Ministers convened the first ASEAN Economic Ministers on Energy Cooperation (AEMEC) in Bali, Indonesia. The Agreement on ASEAN Energy Cooperation signed by ASEAN Member States on 24 June 1986 marked the formal establishment of the energy cooperation.

Cooperation in the energy sector is guided by the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC), a series of five-year implementation plans for energy sector cooperation.  ASEAN Member States cooperate to ‘enhance energy connectivity and market integration in ASEAN to achieve energy security, accessibility, affordability and sustainability for all’. 

The current APAEC 2016-2025 Phase I: 2016-2020 is the fourth of these implementation plans, a continuation from the three previous energy plans namely: APAEC 1999-2004, APAEC 2004-2009 and APAEC 2010-2015.