Current theories of international regional integration have been developed mainly on the basis of European integration, and are very valuable and important for studying, designing and regulating international regional integration. However, with the development of practice of international regional integration, particularly that of developing countries, some of these theories can not explain the new phenomena or patterns of international regional integration. These contradictions between theory and practice not only may lead to confusions for the public and academic researches in their understanding and studying the practice of developing regions' integrations, but also may discourage related policy makers of developing regions from designing and planning their integration on the basis of their native conditions.

My research aims at exploring regularity of developing regions' integrations, based on a comparative study between ASEAN and GCC by modifying some of the current theories and views and applying other well-relevant theories, so as to contribute to the research and theoretic innovation of international regional integration of developing regions. Since EU represents developed blocs and has the richest and most successful experience of integration, it can be used as a reference of integration, but more attention will be paid to ASEAN and GCC, as they represent developing blocs and have been relatively successful in integration compared with other developing regions. ASEAN has planed to establish a free trade area by 2015 and to form a economic community by 2020,and GCC moves even more quickly by scheduling to form a customs union by 2007 and a monetary union by 2010. A comparative study between them will have typical significance and will act as a basis for further study on various integrations of developing regions.