Cambodia's trade with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) member countries amounted to US$2.74 billion in January, a year-on-year increase of 21.2 percent, a report of the Ministry of Commerce showed on Friday. The report said Cambodia's total trade volume with other RCEP members accounted for 67.6 percent of the country's total trade of US$4.05 billion in January this year. Entering into force on Jan. 1, 2022, RCEP comprises 15 Asia-Pacific countries including 10 ASEAN member states -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- and their five trading partners, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. RCEP has given a big impetus to Cambodia's exports, contributing to the economic development of the country, said H.E. Sok Siphana, Senior Minister in Charge of International and Multilateral Trade and Economic Relations. 'RCEP has given a big market access to Cambodia's products and is the source of the co untry's sustainable economic development in years to come,' he said. Under the mega-regional pact, as much as 90 percent of the tariffs on goods traded among its signatories will be eliminated over the next 20 years. In 2023, the two-way trade between Cambodia and RCEP countries decreased by 5.07 percent to US$29.45 billion. Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse SEOUL, The fourth and final unit of the South Korean-built Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has started up, signaling its commercial operation, South Korea's state-run utility firm said Friday. The Unit 4 reactor began producing heat through nuclear fission, used for generating electricity, in a stable manner, with its commercial operation expected in the first half of the year, according to the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO). It is the last of the four nuclear reactors built in Barakah, 270 kilometers west of Abu Dhabi, under a US$20 billion contract won by a KEPCO-led consortium in 2009. The project marked South Korea's first export of a homegrown commercial atomic power plant. The first Barakah unit began commercial operation in April 2021, the second one in March 2022 and the third one in Feb. 2023. The plant is the first multi-unit operational nuclear plant in the Arab region, using four APR-1400 pressurized water reactors capable of each producing up to 1,400 megaw atts of clean electricity. Source: Yonhap News Agency