ASEAN Community: a giant step towards Asian integration

The two experts' opinions on China's positive role in promoting the bloc's integration and helping it address challenges were echoed by many, who believed the economic growth of many countries in the region has been hindered by inadequate infrastructure, but China's initiatives, including the Belt and Road, come as an important solution to the bottleneck.

"The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China could make a unique contribution to the building of the ASEAN Community," Oh said.

The community can work well with China's initiative, as the two complement each other in enhancing regional and world prosperity and harmony, the expert added.

Political analysts also urged the "10+3" mechanism to further stimulate its internal driving force by seizing the historical opportunities brought by the ASEAN Community.

As the main driving force for regional economic integration, the "10+3" mechanism has yielded fruitful results during the past years.

In the opinion of the analysts, it is especially important for the mechanism to take the ASEAN Community's formation as an opportunity to continue its constructive role in promoting regional growth and integration, now at a time when the regional economy is facing mounting downward pressure, rising global financial risks and increasing non-traditional security threats such as natural disasters, climate change and terrorism,

According to Xu, China has made ASEAN a priority in implementing its Belt and Road Initiative, which is set to promote trade and infrastructure construction in the region.