RCEP to make Southeast Asia flourish, bloom again: Malaysian veteran politician

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2022, will drive economic recovery in Southeast Asia (SEA) and make it flourish and bloom again, a Malaysian veteran politician said. “This is an Asian change I think we should get together,“ said Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a Gua Musang Member of Parliament under the ruling BN affiliated UMNO party, said in a recent interview with Xinhua. Signed in November last year, RCEP is a mega trade deal between 10 ASEAN member states, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and its five free trade agreement partners, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. While the COVID-19 pandemic has put the world into a recession trend, Tengku Razaleigh, who is also known as Ku Li, expressed his belief that RCEP will play an important role in promoting the regional development. “I think it is good for t