RCEP is a world-changing New Year's gift to Asean

AMID the gloom of Covid-19 resurgence brought by the highly contagious Omicron variant, the unresolved political crisis of Myanmar and the brewing geopolitical tensions between the giants, Asean got some cheers over the New Year with the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement.

The RCEP comprises the 10 Asean members and their regional dialogue partners Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The 15 RCEP participating countries (RPCs) cover about 30 percent of global GDP and a third of the world's population. It is the world's largest Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to date. When post-Covid-19 economic recovery is the central policy focus of all countries worldwide, the implementation of RCEP is, indeed, a welcome gift to Asean.