The conclusion of text-based negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in November 2019 paves the way for the economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to strengthen their economic integration with five of its dialogue partners, namely Australia, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, Japan, and New Zealand.

Kishore Mahbubani, former Singaporean Ambassador to the United Nations, once declared, “When ASEAN [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] was born on the 8th of August 1967, it was destined to fail.” After all, Southeast Asia was, and continues to be, one of the most diverse regions in the world, hosting four major religions, 800 languages, innumerable ethnicities, and radically diverging political systems and cultures. Despite its unprecedented diversity, ASEAN has brought durable stability and prosperity to 655 million people in Southeast Asia. In an era of growing cultural pessimism, ASEAN is a miraculous counterexample of coexistence.

Cambodia will host the 13th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on Nov 16-17in Phnom Penh under the theme “Strengthening Multilateralism for Shared Growth”. The summit will be the country’s biggest, historic international event, with the participation of government leaders from 51 countries and two regional organizations (Asean and the EU).

Firms need to prepare plans to ensure uninterrupted business activities during the outbreak, said Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on Thursday in a meeting with representatives of private economic groups in tourism, services, aviation, food and industry.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 or coronavirus) was first detected in December 2019 by health authorities in Wuhan City in the People’s Republic of China. Since that time, more than 118,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide, and the virus has spread to more than 114 countries across 6 continents, causing over 4,200 deaths to date, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Vietnam’s e-commerce market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.3 percent from 9.4 billion USD last year to 17.3 billion USD in 2023, data analytics company GlobalData forecast.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has affected many export industries, the forestry industry still posted growth in both export value and volume with wood and wooden product exports in the first two months of this year hitting US$1.5 billion, an increase of 10.1 percent compared to the same period last year.

Washington state on Thursday moved to formally repeal an aerospace tax break that benefited U.S. planemaker Boeing and avert looming European Union tariffs on U.S. goods.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal is expected to be signed at the end of this year, ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi said on the sideline of the 26th Meeting of ASEAN Economic Ministers Retreat held in Vietnam’s central city of Da Nang Wednesday.

Help is available for freelancers and gig economy workers who are left without income as a result of coronavirus in Singapore.