On September 21, the fifth RCEP Ministers’ Meeting was held in Manila, the Philippines. Yan Dong, Vice Minister of Commerce, attended and addressed the meeting.

During the meeting, the Parties exchanged views on the current global and regional economic developments as well as the future development of RCEP, and reaffirmed their commitment to an open, free, fair and rules-based multilateral trading system. Consensus has been reached that in current circumstances, the Parties should work together to strengthen the implementation of the RCEP agreement, deepen trade and investment relations between members, and continuously build regional economic resilience. All Parties welcomed the establishment of an ad hoc accession working group to advance the accession process for Bangladesh; Chile; Hong Kong, China; and Sri Lanka, and agreed to commence work on the Joint Scoping Paper to inform the RCEP upgrade, with a view to announcing the launch of the RCEP upgrade at the RCEP Ministers’ Meeting in 2027.

In his remarks at the meeting, Yan Dong noted that unilateralism and protectionism are now surging against the ride, global economic growth lacks momentum, while economies face mounting uncertainties in their development. All Parties should uphold multilateralism, embrace the vision of openness and inclusiveness, accelerate the RCEP accession process, expand and strengthen regional cooperation platforms, and actively advance the review and upgrading of the agreement in order to further unlock the potential of regional cooperation and inject stronger impetus into regional and global economic growth. (Released on September 22)