A brief update. ASEAN already has:
1. about 8% of the world's population
2. a combined GDP of US$700 billion --- in the same ballpark as S.Korea --- and this is growing at an average rate of around 4% pa
3. a highly diversified economy --- significant exports include a lot of oil and a lot of computer hardware
4. more Muslims than any other economic/political entity -- about a quarter of a billion (mostly in Indonesia & Malaysia)
5. the third largest number of English speakers after the US and UK --- around 50 million (mostly in the Philippines)
6. some of the world's worst governments, e.g the military-capitalist regime in Burma, which has more than a few similarities to the thankfully deposed, unbelievably murderous and virtually unpunished Suharto of Indonesia. (Except that few could hold a candle to Suharto's record of killing between 500,000 and 5 million political opponents in his first couple of years alone, while the west turned a blind eye )
The ASEAN home page http://www.aseansec.org
Links to ASEAN economic statistics: http://www.aseansec.org/13100.htm