TRADE OFFICIALS from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their six free-trade partners are meeting this week to arrive at crucial “commitments” to move closer to the conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
THE PHILIPPINES is poised to take on a key role as one of the member countries under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, according to visiting Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang.
THE PHILIPPINES is gearing up to negotiate two big free trade agreements (FTA) next year, as countries under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) approach a consensus on the partnership’s terms, and with trade talks with the European Union (EU) set to resume in the first quarter next year.
MANILA, Philippines – The benefits of regional integration are numerous not just for the different economies but for the private sector as well as it would encourage companies to further improve their services and products, the Philippine chief of a multinational oil firm said. In a paper on regional integration, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. country manager Edgar Chua said these initiatives could provide an opportunity for companies like Shell to further improve themselves and compete more “through operational excellence.” “Hence, we benchmark our product and services against the best of the best in the world. Benchmarking is our way of knowing where we are vis-à-vis our peers and competitors,” said Chua in an article posted on the company’s website. In Asia, negotiations for various regional integration initiatives have taken off. One such initiative is the negotiations for the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The proposed RCEP, which includes all the 10 ASEAN economies plus their six free trading agreement partners namely, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand, would create the world’s largest free trade bloc with huge impact to the world economy, according to the Asian Development Bank in its ADB Outlook 2013. The RCEP economies have a combined total population of 3.5 billion, a gross domestic product of $21.4 trillion and trade receipts of $12 trillion, according to the ADB. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Chua said besides the RCEP, the so-called ASEAN economic community (AEC) has also emerged. With a target Read More …