Nguyen Thi Thu Trang from the WTO Centre said that many businesses are pinning high hopes on the RCEP as it will create a giant market accounting for 50 percent of the global population. She pointed out the issues that Vietnamese enterprises need to take into consideration when the RCEP negotiation is successful.  Trang said: “In the RCEP market, there will be a lot of opportunities because the market is large and not all customers are demanding which will be easy for Vietnamese enterprises. But there will be many competitors in this market and the competition is fierce. So, enterprises need to improve their competitiveness to directly compete with their rivals.”

Negotiations on the RCEP between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its partners of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand began in 2013 and are now in the final stages. Once completed, the agreement will create a large free trade region covering Vietnam’s various major export partners.