ISTANBUL 

Hong Kong will join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a 15-member Asia-Pacific free trade organization, the region's top official announced on Thursday.

“Hong Kong formally requested accession to RCEP in January, when RCEP entered into force for most of its member economies. All 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states are members of RCEP, and they welcomed Hong Kong’s request for early accession,” said Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu.

10-member ASEAN has been Hong Kong's second-largest trading partner since 2010, with bilateral trade surpassing $160 billion last year.

The RCEP, the world’s largest trade deal, came into force early this year in January.

The deal was signed in November 2020 by ASEAN members and five non-ASEAN countries, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and China.

It covers around 28% of international trade, nearly 30% of the world's population, over 30% of global gross domestic product (GDP), and close to 30% of global foreign direct investment (FDI).

Addressing the first Hong Kong-ASEAN Summit 2022, hosted by the daily South China Morning Post, Lee said: “Substantive discussions with member states were set to begin next year and the city had a great deal to contribute.”

“We can add enormous value to RCEP, given our unmatched role as the business bridge between the mainland (China) and the rest of the world, as well as our status as one of the world’s leading financial centers, and China’s major international financial center,” he added.

Lee said Hong Kong would help ASEAN “secure far-reaching opportunities offered by the fast-growing Greater Bay Area and had many new initiatives that member states could take advantage of, including its recently announced talent and investment schemes.”

“I am result-oriented, so I must try to answer that question. We have been living in the eye of a pandemic for nearly three years now… But what I can tell you, loud and clear, is that Hong Kong is onstage again. We have our doors open,” he said.

Hong Kong, under the semi-autonomous status within the Chinese system, rose to become the world’s top financial center before losing the status to Singapore partly due to mass anti-government demonstrations triggered by the now-binned extradition bill in 2019 and also due to the COVID-19 pandemic.