This chapter charts developments in Southeast Asia concerning regional economic integration through the conclusion of plurilateral trade and investment agreements.It examines the early steps towards achieving economic integration, including the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”) in 1967, and the progressive steps that Southeast Asian States have taken to liberalise their economic and investment policies through the ASEAN framework.It then considers various recent and ongoing developments in regional economic integration, including the negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and its revival as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership, the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community, and the ongoing negotiation of the Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement.It concludes with the observation that many innovations in the negotiation of IIAs are emerging from the practice of ASEAN and other Asian States which are having broader implications on the field of international investment law.

The Myanmar Investment Law (“MIL”) and related statutory and institutional reforms (such as the Myanmar Investment Commission) seek to provide a level playing field for local and foreign investors; ensure adequate investor protections to promote investor confidence; and provide a nascent grievance mechanism for the settlement of an investor-State dispute.This chapter examines the framework and structure that the MIL advances to protect investors; and at the same time, to preserve Myanmar’s regulatory authority to pursue legitimate objectives that are consistent with international investment law, such as to prohibit investments that are contrary to the public interest, and to adopt reasonable measures to protect it.