Vietnam hands over EABC Chairmanship to RoK

Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vu Tien Loc, who is also Chairman of the East Asia Business Council (EABC) in 2020 (Photo: VNA)

Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vu Tien Loc, as Chairman of the East Asia Business Council (EABC) in 2020, recently handed over the EABC Chair to Hak-hee Jo, Executive Managing Director of the Korea International Trade Association.

Priorities of the Council this year will focus on boosting post-pandemic recovery in tandem with comprehensive commerce development, promoting the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement as a tool for economic recovery, and ensuring supply chains and facilitating cross-border business connectivity amid COVID-19.

The EABC Council will convene three meetings and those of working groups to prepare for dialogues between EABC and the ASEAN Senior Economic Official Meeting Plus Three (SEOM+3), and the ASEAN Plus Three Economic Ministers' (AEM+3).

Notably, the Council is to compile a report on recommendations of business communities in the region and submit to ASEAN 3 leaders at the EABC-ASEAN+3 dialogue, which is scheduled for November in Brunei.

Loc said that despite COVID-19, the EABC reaped fruitful results in 2020, citing as an example its RCEP working group’s contribution to a report of the Council on business communities’ support for the signing of the trade pact.

As a result, the RCEP was signed at the 37th ASEAN Summit and related ones. The agreement is the largest free trade agreement in ASEAN, covering 2.2 billion people and 26.2 trillion USD in GDP, equivalent to two thirds of the world.

In addition, during talks between the EABC and leaders of ASEAN+3 and AEM+3, the leaders welcomed and showed support for EABC activities which aim to bolster regional economic growth in the context of COVID-19.

They also spoke highly of the Council’s contribution to promoting the RCEP agreement./.