Asean japan comprehensive economic partnership

Roundtable discussion featured speakers which included Asean secretary-general Dato Paduka Lim Jock Hoi. (Photo: bangkokpost.com) Bangkok (VNA) – Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Lim Jock Hoi has expressed his confidence that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will be completed in principle before Thailand’s chairmanship ends at the end of this year. At a roundtable on ASEAN Vision 2040: Towards Bolder and Stronger ASEAN Community in Bangkok on October 6, the Secretary-General said despite Malaysia’s recent decision to backtrack on its commitment to the deal and the growing trade tensions between Japan and the Republic of Korea, he remains optimistic that the RCEP negotiations will continue as planned. He added that against the backdrop of trade tension and uncertainties in the global market, ASEAN is still determined to complete the RCEP negotiations. The bloc needs to take a pragmatic approach, he said, … [Read more...] about Trade war will not affect RCEP: ASEAN Secretary-General

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is leading a high-level delegation of Vietnam to attend the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo and visit Japan from October 8-10. The trip is hoped to help lift bilateral trade to 60 billion USD in 2020. Nhat Tan Bridge - a symbol of the Vietnam-Japan friendship (Source: VNA) Over the past years, Viet Nam-Japan trade relations have grown rapidly, and Japan has always been among the top four trade partners among more than 200 countries and territories exporting to and importing goods from Vietnam. The number of Japanese companies investing in Vietnam has been on the rise along with their investment scale. Economic ties between the two countries are opening more cooperation opportunities in many areas. After 45 years of establishing diplomatic relations, Vietnam and Japan have become increasingly important partners of each other in many fields. Since the two countries upgraded the bilateral relationship to the level of Extensive Strategic … [Read more...] about Vietnam, Japan target 60 billion USD in two-way trade by 2020

1. We, the Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), met on 31 July 2019 at the 52nd ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) in Bangkok. We underlined the need to further strengthen cooperation and advance our partnership to ensure sustainability in all dimensions for ASEAN amidst the rapid changes in Southeast Asia and beyond.   ASEAN COMMUNITY-BUILDING 2. We reaffirmed our commitment to the full and effective implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the ASEAN Leaders’ Vision Statement on Partnership for Sustainability. We reaffirmed the importance of maintaining ASEAN centrality and unity in our community-building efforts, engagement with external partners and regional architecture. We commended the ongoing work of all ASEAN Sectoral Bodies and Organs for progress in the implementation of the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC), ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) … [Read more...] about Joint Communique of 52nd ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

Leading economic partner The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) has entered its fourth year of development since the founding milestone of December 31, 2015, and is striving to realize its Vision to 2025 with initial encouraging results. The AEC has created a relatively synchronous production space, which helps promote the common advantage of the ASEAN region. Goods, services, capital, investment and skilled labor will be freely circulating within ASEAN without suffering any discrimination between the member states. Its intra-bloc economic cooperation efforts with partners have brought ASEAN member states stable economic growth, forecast to reach 4.9 percent in 2019, nearly double the world average. In the 24 years since Vietnam joined the bloc, its members have become the country’s leading economic and trade partners. Compared to 1996, when Vietnam began to participate in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), trade between Vietnam and ASEAN has grown by more than 9.5 times from US$5.9 … [Read more...] about Vietnam looks ahead to 2020 Asean Chairmanship

At the 7th RCEP Ministerial Meeting in Thailand in September (Photo: VNA)   Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand will hold bilateral negotiations with Japan, New Zealand and India in an attempt to finish talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by November. Local media quoted Auramon Supthaweethum, Director-General of the Trade Negotiations Department of Thailand, as saying that the country has scheduled bilateral negotiations with the three partners during the RCEP trade negotiating committee's meeting set for Vietnam’s central city of Da Nang later this month, to thrash out differences on contentious issues such as opening markets for sensitive goods and services. The RCEP initiative was launched in November 2012 with the aim of boosting economic cooperation between 10 ASEAN countries and six dialogue partners, namely China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, India and New Zealand. Negotiators from all the participating countries have concluded … [Read more...] about Thailand works to speed up RCEP talks