KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 (Bernama) — ASEAN has truly gained traction as an potentially dynamic economic entity with huge prospects for trade and investment. This will undoubtedly take on greater prominence with the realisation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of this year. Undoubtedly, the AEC has created a conducive environment for local companies to increase sales, open operations outside their domestic market and enable sourcing on a region-wide basis. Its significance by being the seventh largest economy in the world with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$2.5 trillion, has attracted more non-ASEAN countries to be dialogue partners with it including Bangladesh and Timor Leste. Realising its potential back then, Australia was the first to come on board as a dialogue partner, quickly followed by China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, India, the United States, Russia, Canada and the European Union. To take this significantly further, ASEAN is in...