Economic Integration's Impact on Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

Abstract

&nbsp;In this digital era, the economic sector has been transformed while gearing towards increased digitisation. In part, this has led to innovation, growth, and enhanced competitiveness, further leading to economic development. As a result, ASEAN countries have been pursuing adapting this change towards the digital era to prepare new technological advances that can create opportunities for development, including addressing possible threats. This chapter examines how the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) affects the commercial and economic activities of RCEP member countries, including supply chain management (SCM), tariff reductions on trade, customs duty reductions, market expansion, and the likelihood of obtaining economies of scale in manufacturing. We adopted a qualitative method approach, which involved reviewing current literature and interpreting them in order to make possible recommendations. The findings indicate that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will significantly impact industries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as textile and apparel supply chain integration, and that this will provide a significant opportunity for member countries to improve their economic conditions further. Additionally, improving the SCM leads to an increase in GDP, enabling many countries to achieve a favourable balance of trade and encouraging them to pursue innovation. The implementation of the RCEP agreement also has its challenges and needs to be addressed in order to make the adoption of RCEP a success.<br>