ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) is a ministerial body under the AEC Council responsible for steering ASEAN’s economic integration. The AEM comprises of economic or trade ministers from all 10 ASEAN Member States. The first AEM meeting took place in November 1975 in Jakarta, Indonesia. At the First ASEAN Summit in 1976 in Bali, Indonesia, the leaders agreed that economic ministers would meet “to consider measures to be taken towards implementing the decisions of the ASEAN Heads of Government on matters of economic cooperation”. This was reflected in the Bali Concord signed at the Summit.

In 2003, the role of AEM was expanded to prepare for the establishment of ASEAN Communities,. Based on the recommendations of the High-Level Task Force on ASEAN Economic Integration (HLTF-EI), the Leaders signed the Bali Concord II and reaffirmed AEM as the coordinator of all ASEAN economic integration and cooperation issues. The AEM receives support on policy issues from the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) Council and ASEAN Investment Area (AIA) Council, ministerial bodies overseeing ASEAN integration on trade in goods and investment, respectively. The AEM also receives technical and operational support from Senior Economic Officials’ Meeting (SEOM), which consist of high-ranking officials from the ASEAN Member States, and the sectoral committees and working groups on different areas of cooperation. In addition, the AEM also receive recommendations from the HLTF-EI on matters relating to ASEAN economic integration and external relations.

Today, the AEM meets back-to-back with AFTA and AIA Council meetings, as well as meetings with ASEAN’s Dialogue Partners on external economic engagement. The AEM meeting is preceded by a SEOM that provides recommendations and/or raise matters for the AEM to guide. The AEM meets regularly twice a year, one in a retreat format at the beginning of the year to discuss matters relating to ASEAN internal economic integration and a later meeting in an official format.