ASEAN Common Time

Map showing the member states of ASEAN.

The ASEAN Common Time (ACT) is a proposal to adopt a standard time for all Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states.[1][2] It was proposed in 1995 by Singapore, and in 2004 and 2015 by Malaysia to make business across countries easier.[3][4] The proposal failed because of opposition in Thailand and Cambodia:[3][5] Thais and Cambodians argued that UTC+08:00 was not better than UTC+07:00, which is the current time zone of their countries.[3]

Currently, there are four different time zones used by ASEAN countries. UTC+06:30 (Myanmar); UTC+07:00 (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and western Indonesia); UTC+08:00 (Brunei, central Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore); and UTC+09:00 (eastern Indonesia).

The proposal would institute UTC+08:00 as the ASEAN Central Time, putting Myanmar at UTC+07:00, and leaving the less populous eastern Indonesia at UTC+09:00.[citation needed] This would result in the vast majority of the region's people and territory lining up at UTC+08:00—in sync with China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Western Australia, while eastern islands of Indonesia would remain at UTC+09:00—in sync with Japan, South Korea, North Korea, East Timor and Palau.

Some regional businesses have already begun adopting the phrase "ASEAN Common Time", also using the abbreviation ACT, in their press releases, communications, and legal documents. The idea has since been under discussion by ASEAN, with Singapore supporting it strongly.[6][7]

  1. ^ "Association of Southeast Asian Nations · ASEAN Anthem". Aseansec.org. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  2. ^ "The Nation - Google News Archive Search". Google News. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Com, The Phuket News (25 April 2015). "Thailand News: Asean unlikely to agree on common time zone". The Phuket News Com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  4. ^ Media, Kompas Cyber (10 December 2019). "Pengaruh Letak Astronomis ASEAN". KOMPAS.com (in Indonesian). Archived from the original on 29 December 2019. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  5. ^ Sunday, 26 Apr 2015 11:11 PM MYT (26 April 2015). "Proposal for common Asean time zone put on hold, Anifah says | Malay Mail". www.malaymail.com. Retrieved 18 August 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ "Remarks By Foreign Minister George Yeo in Parliament in Response To Question on Asean Cooperation". mfa.gov.sg. 2 September 2004. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012.
  7. ^ "A common Asean time zone? 6 things about time differences in the region". The Straits Times. 30 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2 August 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.