The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) recently celebrated its third anniversary of implementation. On January 9th, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, He Yadong, stated at a regular press conference that RCEP is the world's most populous, largest economic and trade agreement with the greatest potential for development. Since its implementation three years ago, its influence has continued to expand, deepening trade and investment cooperation among regional members and becoming the main channel for Asia Pacific economic integration. One is the continuous improvement of RCEP mechanism construction. During China's tenure as the non ASEAN rotating chair of RCEP in 2024, we will make every effort to promote the establishment of a new membership procedure for RCEP. With the joint efforts of all parties, the RCEP supporting institutions were officially put into operation last year. At present, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and Chile have formally applied to join RCEP, and some economies have expressed strong interest in joining RCEP. The attractiveness and influence of RCEP are constantly increasing. The second is to deepen the process of regional economic integration. RCEP has further relaxed market access for goods, services, and investment within the region, optimized the business environment within the region, and made factor flows more free and convenient. Especially the RCEP cumulative rules of origin and the 6-hour customs clearance policy for express shipments are conducive to promoting the development of intra regional trade. In 2023, the total trade volume of RCEP region will reach 5.6 trillion US dollars; The amount of green space investment attracted by the region has reached 2.2 times that of 2021. The third is to effectively consolidate the basic foundation of China's foreign trade. Since the implementation of RCEP, the proportion of goods trade between China and RCEP members in China's total import and export volume has remained above 30%; By 2023, it will reach 12.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.3% compared to 2021. From January to November 2024, it has reached 12 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%. He Yadong stated that as the largest economy in RCEP, China will continue to comprehensively and high-quality implement RCEP, making greater contributions to promoting the process of Asia Pacific economic integration and achieving regional common development and prosperity. As of now, China has signed 23 free trade agreements with 30 countries and regions, with free trade partners covering five continents, and the network of free trade zones continues to expand and deepen. The content and quality of free trade agreements are constantly enriching and improving. Negative lists for trade in services and investment, as well as new content such as standard cooperation and digital economy, have become the "standard" for China's newly signed free trade agreements. Next, we will continue to actively expand the global network of high standard free trade zones and continue to implement effective free trade agreements with high quality, so as to better benefit the people of China and its free trade partners He Yadong said. (New Society)