According to Minister Anh, the event is a chance for the negotiating countries to review progresses of a series of important chapters of the RCEP. He highlighted efforts of parties to the RCEP over the past five years, saying there are differences because the RCEP is a large agreement and the development level of economies to the deal is different, leading to various benefit requirements.
Ministers from 16 Asia-Pacific countries joined the event, the first to be held outside the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In his speech, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for creating a free, rules-based and fair market.
Earlier, a meeting of heads of working groups was held in Japan and reached certain results in the fields such as e-commerce, customs procedures and intellectual property.
The 16 negotiating countries are the 10 ASEAN members - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - plus Japan, China, India, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand.