Cambodia is hosting a High-Level Forum on the 10th Anniversary of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement, and the Official Launch of the Book on the Framework for Regional Integration by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
The opening ceremony of the High-Level Forum and Book Launch took place here this morning under the presidency of Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia and Chair of ASEAN for 2022, with high-level delegates from RCEP member countries, senior researchers, representatives of business associations and councils and other stakeholders in attendance.
In his remarks, Samdech Techo Hun Sen recalled that RCEP was announced to begin the negotiations in 2012 at the 21st ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, of which Cambodia was the ASEAN Chair. The year 2022 marks the 10th anniversary after the launch of negotiations of this agreement, and it is also the year that RCEP entered into force while Cambodia once again is the ASEAN Chair.
“RCEP is an important mechanism and a strategy that demonstrates our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the rules-based multilateral free trade system, maintaining economic openness, and upholding a spirit of cooperation. Furthermore, RCEP has great potential to address major challenges such as strengthening global value chains, accelerating digitalisation, mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change as well as counteracting the tendencies of anti-globalisation and protectionism, on one hand; and on the other hand, RCEP also has a crucial role in maintaining the prosperity and political stability in the region by promoting key roles of strengthened economic integration and enhancing existing institutional mechanisms in fostering high-level dialogues as well,” he said.
The Cambodian Premier continued that some studies by major international institutions have shown that a full-pledged implementation of RCEP will boost trade volume by approximately US$40 billion, increase real income by up to 2.5 percent, upswing trade activities amongst RCEP members by 12.3 percent and help uplift the livelihood of an additional 27 million people into the middle class for the RCEP region by 2035 while RCEP is estimated to increase global incomes by up to US$263 billion.
“For Cambodia, a study by ERIA in early 2022 shows that Cambodia’s gross domestic product (GDP) could rise by around 2 percent to 3.8 percent, exports would grow between 9.4 percent to 18 percent, job opportunities would increase by 3.2 percent to 6.2 percent annually and tax revenue could increase by 2 percent to 3.9 percent per annum while the overall investment could increase by around 23.4 percent,” Samdech Techo Prime Minister underlined.
RCEP is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The 15 member countries account for about 30 percent of the world’s population of 2.2 billion people.
Source: Agency Kampuchea Press