EIGHT long years and 46 rounds of negotiations - with plenty of "blood, sweat and tears" along the way, as Malaysia's trade minister recently put it - bore fruit on Sunday as the world's largest trading bloc became a reality at last.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), as it is called, is a mega free trade pact backed by China and involves 14 other Asia-Pacific countries including Singapore.

Even as the ink is barely dry on the agreement, many in Asia are already hoping that the ambitious accord - covering some 30 per cent of the world's GDP, or about US$21 trillion - can go a long way towards speeding up the economic recovery from the debilitating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.