The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has set 2015 as the target to create a single economic market in the 10-nation bloc that is home to some 600 million people.

The ASEAN Economic Community is aimed at improving the flow of goods, services, investment and labour around the region, whose economic powers have long faced criticism for failing to work together more effectively.

The single market could add an extra 14 million new jobs and boost Southeast Asia's annual growth 7.1 percent by 2025, said the joint study by the UN's International Labour Organisation and the Asian Development Bank.

However it also warned the gains may not be evenly distributed and the plan could widen already large gaps between rich and poor across the region.

"Unless decisively managed, this could increase inequality and worsen existing labour market deficits -- such as vulnerable and informal employment, and working poverty," the study said.
 
It called for Southeast Asian countries to develop policies that support "inclusive and fair development" and to improve social protection.

The study also found that the share of new jobs going to women across the region would be smaller than those going to men.

Sukti Dasgupta, an International Labour Organisation economist and researcher on the study, said this was due to the sectors that were likely to be boosted by integration, such as construction and transport.

The study found that integration would benefit Cambodia, as well as other lower-income countries the most, while hitting Indonesia, Southeast Asia's top economy, the hardest.

Growth in Southeast Asia's economies has been impressive in the past 50 years and helped spawn millions of new middle class workers and attract foreign investment to the region.

However, wealth gaps are huge within the ASEAN bloc, which includes rich countries such as Singapore, middle-income nations such as Indonesia and Malaysia, and lower-income ones such as Cambodia and Myanmar.