Dividend superposition releases RCEP to expand regional economic and trade cake
Recently, the fifth ministerial meeting after the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was held in Manila, Philippines, and a joint media statement was released. At the meeting, all parties exchanged in-depth views on the regional and global economic situation, as well as the future development direction of RCEP, reaffirming their commitment to an open, free, fair, and rule-based trade framework. All parties present unanimously agree that in the current context, we should work together to strengthen the implementation of the RCEP agreement, deepen trade and investment links among members, and continuously enhance regional economic resilience.
Industry insiders interviewed stated that in the five years since the implementation of the agreement, the institutional dividends of RCEP are accelerating their transformation into practical driving forces for regional development. Strengthening the implementation of the agreement and deepening trade and investment links among members are related to the security, stability, and smooth flow of regional production and supply chains, and will also contribute more certainty to global economic governance.
Deepen economic and trade ties, enhance regional resilience
In response to the consensus on strengthening the multilateral trading system and eliminating trade barriers, Ma Jianchun, President of the China World Trade Organization Research Association, stated in an interview with the International Business Daily that against the backdrop of rising unilateralism and protectionism, the multilateral trading system centered on the World Trade Organization is facing multiple challenges such as functional operation and rule making. Regional economic cooperation is increasingly becoming an important supplementary platform for international trade rules and dispute resolution.
RCEP is currently the world's largest free trade area in terms of population, economic and trade scale, diverse member structure, and development potential. Its positive role is increasingly prominent, but there are also areas that urgently need to be continuously improved, such as rule utilization, governance mechanisms, and expansion of membership. ”Ma Jianchun said that in the future, all parties should implement the agreement with high quality, accelerate the improvement of institutional governance mechanisms, promote RCEP from being "the largest" to being "at a higher level", and avoid the emergence of new barriers in the field of green trade.
To verify the effectiveness of the implementation of the agreement, Lin Jian, Vice President of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, provided a set of data: from 2020 to 2025, the scale of trade within the RCEP region increased from 4.43 trillion US dollars to 6.09 trillion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 24%, and the proportion of global trade increased from 27.2% to 29.1%; By 2025, the trade volume between China and other RCEP members will reach RMB 13.85 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 5.3%.
Lin Jian stated that the China ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 version and RCEP form a "dual wheel drive", and the digital economy is reshaping regional trade patterns. Green transformation will stimulate new growth points for trade and investment.
When it comes to incorporating modern and emerging issues into the agreement and expanding the benefits of RCEP, Zhao Jinping, former Minister of the Foreign Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council and Vice President of the China Association for Trade in Services, suggested that digitization and green low-carbon should be used as "dual wheel drivers" to promote digital green integration and two-way empowerment under the RCEP framework. He cited statistics from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, stating that by 2025, the global e-commerce retail sales will reach 6.4 trillion US dollars, of which China will account for 3.2 trillion US dollars, accounting for 50.8%. Among the top ten countries in global e-commerce rankings, China, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia, four RCEP members, together account for 56%.
The institutional dividend, innovation dividend, and industrial development dividend are being combined and released, which is precisely the value of regional synergy and investment first, "said Zhao Jinping.
Deeply cultivating overseas frontline and releasing institutional dividends
The consensus at the policy level ultimately needs to be tested and implemented through corporate practice. In recent years, a group of Chinese companies have been deeply cultivating the RCEP market, transforming institutional dividends into tangible development momentum.
In the field of new energy vehicles, Li Xiaoxiao, Deputy General Manager of Beijing Automotive International Development Co., Ltd., introduced that currently Chinese brands have a 50% market share in the new energy market of the six ASEAN countries. Leading companies such as BYD, Great Wall Motors, and SAIC MG have all established production bases in Thailand and Indonesia. The cumulative rules of origin for the RCEP region are the cross-border division of labor and expansion space of "Chinese technology+ASEAN manufacturing" - producing batteries in Indonesia, supporting electronic control in Malaysia, and locally assembling in Thailand can all be included in the proportion of origin.
At present, BAIC has established a spare parts assembly production line in Indonesia, achieving local mass production of "BJ40" automotive products. In the future, the total number of overseas factories will exceed 10. In Li Xiaoxiao's opinion, only by implementing production and compliance can institutional advantages be transformed into core competitiveness.
Zhou Zhicheng, Vice President of Hongdou Group Co., Ltd., shared relevant experiences from the perspectives of park based and cluster based overseas expansion. He stated that the Sihanouk Port Special Economic Zone in Cambodia, currently operated by the group, has attracted more than 200 enterprises from China, ASEAN, Europe, America and other countries and regions to settle in, accounting for over 7% of Cambodia's total import and export scale; After the RCEP officially came into effect, the Cambodia tire project of General Motors, a subsidiary of the group, became the first major project invested by Jiangsu Province in RCEP member countries worth over 100 million US dollars, and simultaneously laid out tire production bases in Thailand, forming a cross member manufacturing network.
In Zhou Zhicheng's view, RCEP not only brings tariff reductions to enterprises, but also provides institutional soil for the coordinated development of industrial clusters.
From the consensus reached at the fifth ministerial meeting to the frontline practices of overseas enterprises, the signal is becoming increasingly clear: RCEP members are strengthening the implementation of the agreement and deepening trade and investment ties through closer cooperation, allowing the regional economy to continue to enhance resilience and achieve stability in openness and cooperation.