While China is the largest economy among the RCEP countries, more alternatives are on the table: ➡️ Malaysia, ➡️ Singapore, ➡️ Thailand, and ➡️ Vietnam.
How can European companies build their foundational layer of information utilized during the planning and roll-out phase?
And how to develop your critical initiatives required for this market to develop a comprehensive strategy and/or be prepared for the upcoming rollout of global projects.
Let’s take that example: ➡️ Malaysia, ➡️ Singapore, ➡️ Thailand, and ➡️ Vietnam.
Initial steps:
‼️ 1. Look at your industry: when you don’t consider China, likely the largest market, what is the second-largest RCEP market for your products?
‼️ 2. Check your industry's export volume to China, and let's also add India so that one hub can also cover a large market.
Market size, import, and export volume will give a first and essential indication for the market research design to compare, in our case, four RCEP countries: ➡️ Malaysia, ➡️ Singapore, ➡️ Thailand, and ➡️ Vietnam.

See the table above from an RCEP market research for the food and beverages industry. (the color code shows export volume ranking: 1.🟩 Green, 2. 🟨 yellow, 3. 🟧 orange, 4. 🟥 red)