FREE TRADE BLOC
The charter calls for a free-trade economic bloc by 2015, including open movement of goods, services and investments, and freer flow of labour and capital. But a full EU-style integration or common currency is not on the cards.
"ASEAN, after 40 years, now has a legal entity, an institutional structure and a clear roadmap," Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told Reuters at the ceremony.
But she said the ASEAN Economic Community is aimed more at creating a single production base than a single market.
ASEAN will discuss free trade with leaders from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand on Wednesday at the "East Asia Summit".
Critics say that despite strong economic growth in all ASEAN member countries, regional trade has shrunk as China's rapid growth forces former Southeast Asian tigers such as Malaysia into an old role as plantation economies and suppliers of raw materials and half-finished goods.
Territorial disputes, rivalries and vastly different legal systems pose big obstacles to becoming a coherent bloc.
As ASEAN ministers signed the blueprint, Singapore state holding company Temasek was involved in a regional legal tussle after Jakarta declared its investments in Indonesian telecoms were in breach of anti-monopoly laws.
"It's a good example of why full ASEAN integration remains a pipe dream," Citigroup economist Chua Hak Bin said.
While the charter aims to promote "the rule of law, good governance, the principles of democracy and constitutional government", national sovereignty trumps all.
Asked why a one-party state would sign a charter that aims to strengthen democracy, Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung underlined the charter's principles of non-interference.
"The one-party system is the choice of the Vietnamese people. I don't think there should be any imposition from any countries," Dung told Reuters on Monday.
