Deputy Prime Minister spoke at the session titled, “Ten years of the EAEU: effects, priorities, and prospects,” held as part of the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Deputy Prime Minister spoke at the session titled, “Ten years of the EAEU: effects, priorities, and prospects” during the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Alexei Overchuk extended his best wished to the session participants on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Eurasian Economic Union noting that the Treaty on the EAEU signed in Astana on 29 May 2014 was a foundational document that outlined the core directions for promoting Eurasian economic integration. Much has been accomplished since the signing of the treaty and, amid global economic turbulence, the EAEU has emerged as a unifying force that serves as an important source of economic stability and growth for all its members.
The EAEU countries have adopted common technical, sanitary, veterinary and phytosanitary rules and standards. Trade between EAEU member states has been growing faster than trade with not-EAEU trading partners. The EAEU’s economic growth rate amounted to 3.8 percent in 2023, which is above the global average and is due, among other things, to the integration mechanisms laid down at the time of its inception.
Alexei Overchuk reminded the session participants of the fact that a mechanism for budget funding of industrial cooperation projects was launched in 2023 at the initiative of Russia, then chair of the EAEU bodies, which gave a major boost to industrial cooperation and import substitution.
“The union’s investment climate is particularly important. The countries have done a lot to establish a fairly deep integration level which guarantees the investors’ rights, and new support tools are being formed,” the Deputy Prime Minister said. “With the industrial cooperation mechanism in place, we hope all economies will have the opportunity to take part in giving start to high-tech industrial cooperation projects and thus be able to grow and reach a whole new level of economic growth.”
The EAEU focuses on food security as well. The union now strives to balance supply and demand with regard to the staple agricultural products, 93 percent of which are grown within the EAEU.
Alexei Overchuk highlighted successful cooperation within the transport sector. “We have identified and agreed on a list of international transport corridors, and use a coordinated approach to developing the transport framework of our union,” he said. “We see the areas of focus on the East-West axis and the North-South axis. We have an absolute understanding that we must join efforts to expand this infrastructure, and it will, without a doubt, provide a competitive edge to the commodity producers from our five countries which they can use to maintain their presence on international markets that lie far afield from our countries. That primarily concerns the Global South countries.”
Speaking of the EAEU medium- and long-term prospects, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that they were outlined in the Eurasian Economic Path declaration on the further development of economic processes within the EAEU to 2030 and further to 2045 signed by the EAEU heads of member states on 25 December 2023.
“Importantly, we managed to agree on the language of the declaration, and the declaration itself relies on the current global agenda,” he said. “This is our response to the global challenges such as food security, energy security, transport connectivity and technology development. All of them affect our lives and the lives of our countries.”
According to Alexei Overchuk, the declaration buttresses a major management mechanism, the key goal of which is to give an extra boost to the interaction between the EAEU member states across various spheres of the Union’s areas of activity.
“Work is underway to draft a plan of concrete measures to implement the provisions of the declaration, in accordance with the declaration signed by the heads of state, and the document will help better coordinate the steps to promote integration processes in Eurasia, the main goal o which is to improve the quality of life,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
He highlighted a number of promising areas of the union’s activities, in particular, the implementing the mechanisms for providing the EAEU countries with core products and resources that are essential for stable growth.
“Following up on the provision of support to industrial cooperation, we have created a critically important precedent where we direct the union’s proceeds from anti-dumping duties to promote its development, and to promote growth in the EAEU member states. In other words, we have actually created a development budget albeit still small one of a pilot nature which is limited to industrial cooperation projects. However, speaking at the Belagro forum in Minsk just three days ago, Mikhail Mishustin came up with a proposal to create a similar support mechanism for implementing science-intensive projects in the agro-industrial complex which is critical for improving our countries’ food security. There are also proposals to support our transport and logistics projects. Taken together, all of that will contribute to strengthening the union. The core goal is to expand our economies and to create conditions for increasing the incomes of our people,” Alexei Overchuk said.
Much remains to be done to promote our common growth, and the union is open to the countries that are willing to be part of the EAEU in a variety of forms. An expanded network of free trade agreements is important in this regard. Today, the EAEU has free trade agreements with Vietnam and Serbia. In December 2023, a free trade agreement was signed with Iran in St Petersburg.
“Collectively, we are entering a market with about 400 million consumers,” the Deputy Prime Minister said in closing. “This is important. The countries that we are negotiating with at this point are also important, if we want to create better conditions for promoting the products manufactured by our producers to these markets. The foundations are being laid to expand our economies and to create better conditions for boosting export revenues. This is a good beginning point for further progress.”