Excerpts from the transcript:
Alexei Overchuk: A meeting of prime ministers of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council countries has ended in Cholpon-Ata.
It was a very important meeting and, in a sense, perhaps a historic one. It was attended by five heads of government of the EAEU member states, as well as observers from Cuba and Uzbekistan. And, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan attended it, for the first time in the history of the EAEU meetings, which undoubtedly indicated the growing interest in the EAEU from our neighbouring countries. The issues that were on the agenda are also very important from the point of view of the development of our union.
First of all, I would like to point out that an agreement has been reached - and the document is actually ready - on the establishment of the Eurasian Reinsurance Company. This company’s mission will be to support Eurasian exports, to support projects that will be implemented primarily in the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union. But we do not want to limit ourselves to the boundaries of the EAEU, and the company will be open to other countries as well.
In addition, during our discussions, we came to the conclusion that those financial instruments to support cooperation projects – we have a fairly large number of cooperation projects that cannot be implemented for various reasons, primarily of a financial nature. Therefore, we thoroughly considered the possibilities of supporting such cooperation projects, and agreed that such cooperation projects should target the industries where we feel the need for growth – primarily the aircraft industry, electronic engineering, and pharmaceuticals. And, of course, we are interested in at least three EAEU member states participating in each of these integration projects – not one or two.
We have also discussed various possibilities for providing financial support to such projects. Now the heads of government have issued the relevant instructions. And we think that by the next meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, which is scheduled for the end of October, we will be ready with specific proposals concerning sources of funding for such projects. This is also being done for the first time.
In addition, we touched upon certain aspects of creating a common gas market in the EAEU. And here we decided to take a closer look at the global developments in the gas market, and think how we could take these new factors into account and incorporate them into the planned agreement on the EAEU common gas market.
The participants also considered the regulation of the alcohol market. Because Belarusian alcohol market regulations seem the most complicated, the Republic of Belarus advanced new proposals, which will now be considered by the member states.
Naturally, we also discussed the development of transport and logistics corridors. Transport logistics is a geographical advantage of the EAEU. The heads of government approved a list of major transport infrastructure projects that will receive support in the EAEU. This is also very important. Overall, the meeting was very informative, and produced specific results that will have a direct impact on the economic development of the EAEU member states, both in terms of further advancement of cooperation and integration projects, and the development of the insurance market. The EAEU is growing and enjoys popularity with its neighbours.
