ASEAN Common Time

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

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.

List

ASEAN relation Country UTC offset Time Zone
Abbreviation
Notes Ref
ASEAN members  Myanmar +06:30 MMT Some experts suggest that moving to UTC+07:00, rather than UTC+08:00, would be a more natural change. Myanmar Standard Time
 Thailand +07:00 ICT Tried unsuccessfully to switch to UTC+08:00 in 2001 by then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The issue remains under discussion. Time in Thailand
 Laos Time in Laos
 Vietnam From 13 June 1975 after reunification Time in Vietnam
 Cambodia Time in Cambodia
 Indonesia +07:00 WIB A single national time zone of UTC+08:00 has been proposed, however, it is unclear when or if it may be implemented. Time in Indonesia
+08:00 WITA
+09:00 WIT
 Singapore +08:00 SGT/SST Followed Malaysia to switch to UTC+08:00 on 1 January 1982, except for Japanese occupation of Singapore during World War II. Singapore Standard Time
 Malaysia MYT/MST Peninsular Malaysia switched from UTC+07:30 on 1 January 1982, and East Malaysia uses it since 1933, except for the Japanese Occupation during World War II. Time in Malaysia
 Brunei BNT/BDT Time in Brunei
 Philippines PHT/PST First implemented on 1 January 1845 by redrawing the International Date Line. It became permanent on 29 July 1990 when the country ended the use of daylight saving time, then set at UTC+09:00. Philippine Standard Time
ASEAN observer states  Timor-Leste +09:00 TLT Time in Timor-Leste
 Papua New Guinea +10:00 PGT Time in Papua New Guinea
+11:00 BST
ASEAN Plus Three  Japan +09:00 JST Japan Standard Time
 South Korea KST Time in South Korea
 People's Republic of China +08:00 CST Time in China

External links

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-12-26 23:11 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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