Phnom Penh (VNA) - Some studies by major international institutions have shown that a full-pledged implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement will boost trade volume by around 40 billion USD, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen has said.
Speaking at a High-Level Forum on the 10th Anniversary of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement in Phnom Penh on November 2, Hun Sen said, with the rise in the trade volume, real income will increase by up to 2.5%, upswing trade activities amongst RCEP members by 12.3% 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 263 billion USD.
For Cambodia, a study by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) in early 2022 showed that Cambodia’s gross domestic product (GDP) could rise by around 2% to 3.8%, exports would grow between 9.4% to 18%, job opportunities would increase by 3.2% to 6.2% annually and tax revenue could increase by 2% to 3.9% per annum while the overall investment could increase by around 23.4%, he said.
RCEP is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The 15 member countries account for about 30% of the world’s population, with 2.2 billion people./.
VNA
