Editor’s note: The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (RCEP) will come into effect on Jan 1, 2022. How will the RCEP benefit the trade partnership in the region? How  companies are planning to seize this opportunity? More insight could be found in “Hello! RCEP” presented by GDToday.

“Through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), I think the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) will be a better platform for international cooperation,” Nicy Bai, Director of International Cultural Communication Center, Malaysia (ICCCM), told GDToday during the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

As one of the 15 member countries of the RCEP, Malaysia is now in the process of ratifying the agreement. To date, the RCEP has been ratified by 10 members and will take effect among them on January 1, 2022, including 6 ASEAN countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as 4 non-ASEAN signatory states of China, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia.

“We will focus on the cooperation in education sector and the development of Chinese companies in the RCEP countries,” said Bai. Establishing its China office in Chengdu, ICCCM aims to promote education, economic, and cultural exchanges between Southeast Asian countries and China.

According to Bai, ICCCM is also a member of the RCEP Industry and Education Coordination Alliance, which was inaugurated in May at Qingdao Harbour Vocational & Technical College. “We hope the Alliance could promote vocational training in other RCEP member countries so as to offer better support to enterprises, especially Chinese enterprises, in the trainees’ home countries,” said Bai.

The RCEP is the world’s largest free trade agreement, representing about 30% of the world’s population and of the global economy. Once coming into force, it will remove tariffs on as much as 90% of goods traded among its signatories over the next 20 years.

With such a giant market and growing business opportunities, Bai noted that the RCEP will also increase inter-connectivity and collaboration among cities in the GBA.

Close to 60% of companies in the GBA have already expressed their interest in boosting investment and furthering collaboration in the ASEAN countries over the next three years, as stated in a research report by UOB Hong Kong Branch and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

Reporter | Jasmine

Author | Lydia Liu

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Editor | Wing, Keane, Jerry