MANILA -- The Philippines, as the new chair of the East Asia Business Council (EABC), wants to improve the utilization of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement in the region.

RCEP is a free trade agreement which covers the ASEAN member countries plus China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. It was ratified in the Philippines in June of 2023, but EABC says many countries are not yet fully utilizing the benefits of the trade deal.

New EABC Chairman Jay Yuvallos, who is also President of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said they will push for initiatives to create awareness among businesses and more capacity building activities to entice micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to take part in RCEP.

“When we think about RCEP, we think about exports. And that is far from it. We have to look at the value chain, the regional value chain and how our MSMEs can plug into this chain even without exporting,” Yuvallos said.

In the Philippines, he added, that MSMEs can tap into the supply value chain in various sectors like shipbuilding, semiconductor among many others. Currently however a lot of MSMEs are not yet fully aware of RCEP processes.

“We will support initiatives that make RCEP utilization systemic to better understanding, simplified processes and build confidence among businesses so RCEP becomes a practical and profitable tool,” he added.

The former chair of EABC, Tan Sri Dato Soh Thian Lai from Malaysia, also supports the RCEP initiatives for the new chair. 

"While awareness of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP, is relatively high, but actual utilization is still constrained by limited know-how and confidence on where to begin," he said.

Yuvallos also said that aside from RCEP, they will also focus on digitalization efforts in the region including a borderless and much improved digital payments ecosystem. He added that he hopes to also improve the perception on the Philippines which is affected by the flood control corruption scandal.

He purposely included "reinforcing trust" in the EABC 2026 agenda. 

"We are putting that on purpose because we really need to regain the trust and we need to reinforce and take care of the trust for the Philippines, as you mentioned, it has been eroded, but we can also do something about it and bounce back," Yuvallos said.

Yuvallos is the new chairman of EABC for 2026 and the vice chair is Tetsuya Matsuoka from Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A handover ceremony was held, Wednesday in Manila, for the turnover of the chairmanship from Malaysia and China to the Philippines and Japan.