Vietnamese Minister of Trade and Industry Tran Tuan Anh. (Photo: VNA)

With its 2020 ASEAN Chairmanship, Vietnam has actively contributed to seeking flexible measures to resolve differences among countries while ensuring national interests to promote the conclusion of negotiations toward signing the pact next year. 

“This is good news for ASEAN, its 6 partners, and other global economies. This is significant after difficult and active negotiations. Forming a new regional economic and trade structure is very important," said Vietnamese Minister of Trade and Industry Tran Tuan Anh.

"RCEP is a new factor, enhancing and strengthening globalization in line with trade liberalization, and bringing back mutual interest for countries, especially developing countries,” he noted.

RCEP’s goal is deepening economic cooperation between ASEAN and its six trade partners – China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, and New Zealand. Once signed, RCEP will include more than 3.5 billion people and encompass about a third of world trade and global GDP.