REGIONAL integration in Africa and Latin America has so far largely failed — in contrast to Europe and Southeast Asia, where it has been quite successful, international experts say.

A key feature of all regions outside Europe is the disjuncture between official policies on integration and the movement of peoples, and their interactions across borders, they say. Greater efforts are needed to overcome this divide, to reap the benefits of integration such as promoting intra-regional trade, economic and social development, and foreign investment.

The experts were gathered at a conference and subsequent seminar organised by the Centre for Conflict Resolution, which is particularly interested in regional integration in sub-Saharan Africa. The government is keen to promote this as a way of stimulating economic growth and has launched a number of initiatives to achieve it.

… Mely Caballero-Anthony, a professor of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, says that in the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), the focus has shifted from region-building to community-building over the past 10-15 years.