Abstract
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.
Keywords: Asia-Pacific, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Supply Chain Management (SCM).