ASEAN Common Time

[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.

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.