Some important decisions in
the spheres of integration, international activities, financial policy, customs
regulation, power industry and a number of others were adopted at the meeting
of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council (SEEC), which took place on October 1
in Yerevan (Armenia).
The first agreements from the package of a comprehensive trade deal between
the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries and the Republic of Singapore,
including the Free Trade Agreement, were signed within the framework of the SEEC meeting.
The SEEC Members highly
appreciated the activities of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) on
developing the Eurasian integration processes.
The meeting was attended by
Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Alexander
Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev,
President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, President of the
Kyrgyz Republic, Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, and
Tigran Sargsyan, Chairman of the EEC Board. Besides, the meeting was attended
by Igor Dodon, President of the Republic of Moldova, as the Head of the
Observer State at the EAEU, Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of the Republic of
Singapore, and Hassan Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as
the Guests of Honor.
“The meeting agenda includes improving mechanisms for cooperation between
the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries, and effective functioning of the
integration space”, - said Nikol Pashinyan, Prime
Minister of the Republic of Armenia, opening the summit.
"We are doubly pleased to hold today's meeting,
as it is attended by the leaders of two countries - Iran and Singapore, our
Union is developing trade and economic relations with, aimed at establishing a
free trade regime. As a result of close and effective cooperation between all
branches of our organization, we managed to further expand the geography of the
Union cooperation, thanks to which today’s meeting acquires special
importance", - Nikol Pashinyan
stated.
The Prime Minister of Armenia noted that the EAEU
pressing issues included measures to remove barriers to forming common markets
as well as the issue of mutual recognition of electronic digital signature for
access of suppliers to participate in e-procurement. In addition, he drew
attention to the need to create conditions for transiting to national currency
settlements between the EAEU countries. This will largely be facilitated by
adopting the Concept for creating a common financial market.
"The integration process will be more dynamic if
citizens prove that our work results in decisions made on pressing issues that
lead to a direct improvement in their living and working conditions. I am sure
that consistent work in this direction will not only effectively eliminate
obstacles, but also contribute to a more complete integration on the principles
of equality, mutual benefit and respect for each other's interests", - Nikol Pashinyan said.
Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus, thanked the Armenian side and
personally Nikol Pashinyan for good arrangement of the summit and warm welcome.
The Head of State positively assessed the development
of cooperation between the EAEU and third countries, including the development
of the Interim Agreement leading to the formation of a free trade area with
Iran, which will enter into force in October, and a package of agreements with
Singapore.
Alexander Lukashenko also noted with satisfaction the
readiness to conclude a Free Trade Agreement with Serbia and recalled that the
Agreement on trade and economic cooperation with China would come into force in
October. In June, the EAEU and the PRC agreed to exchange preliminary
information on goods and vehicles of international transport moving through
their customs in order to speed up the passage of goods across their borders. "The
Commission should negotiate a similar agreement with the European Union to make
the overland link from China to Europe through our countries the most
attractive one", - the Belarusian Head of State considers.
"In order to expand the EAEU international
agenda, special attention should be paid to the far arc countries, where our
goods and services are still little recognized. We invite the Eurasian
Development Bank to join this direction. Our national development banks and
other financial institutions should also search for forms of closer cooperation
both within the Union and at the external border", - Alexander Lukashenko considers.
"Today, we have approved the Concept for creating
the EAEU common financial market, having laid the foundation for ensuring free
movement of capital and services", - the Belarusian President said. In this regard, he noted that the
arrangement of such a market should be associated with digitalization: this
will allow developing advanced financial technologies and make the whole range
of such services more accessible.
According to him, much has been done in the EAEU for
digital transformation of the economy, creation of ecosystems for such sectors
as trade, industrial cooperation, and development of transport corridors,
employment and to ensure traceability of goods movement. "This
direction is gaining momentum, and it is time to harmonize it and add some
relevant provisions to the Treaty on the Union. At the same time, it is
required to pay attention to the issues of information security and to develop
common standards and formats of interaction", - the Belarusian Head of
State stressed.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, stated that "The Union is moving forward, and the
idea put forth by the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan H.E. Nursultan
Nazarbayev has proved its relevance and efficiency. Over the years of its functioning,
the Eurasian integration association has scaled up its economic
interaction".
The EAEU is located at the crossroads of global
markets and is an important transport hub connecting East and West. And,
according to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, an advantage should be properly taken of
this. "There is a steady growth of transit operations in the direction
of China-Europe-China, – the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan noted.
- The transcontinental railway route Vietnam-China-Kazakhstan-Europe was
launched, which resolves logistic issues on promoting our products to the ASEAN
countries' market. This transport corridor will be a good alternative to
overseas transportation and will allow delivering goods from Southeast Asia to
Europe through the territory of the EAEU States in the shortest possible
time".
The transit system being developed in the Union will
create conditions for smooth movement of transit through its territory and
accelerate customs procedures. "The Commission and our governments
should accelerate the development of the EAEU common transport system",
- Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized.
He is also convinced that the Union should create
attractive conditions for developing knowledge intensive technologies, being the
foundation of successful economies, for manufacturing and putting out competitive
products. Digitalization of the Union States' economies should become a
priority. "In Kazakhstan, we have started to implement the
"Digital Kazakhstan" program with an accent on the development of
cloud solutions, big data and artificial intelligence", - the Kazakh President
reported.
Sooronbay Jeenbekov, President of the Kyrgyz Republic, believes that over the five years of
the Eurasian Economic Union’s functioning, it has become a strong and
authoritative integration association in the world, new opportunities for
economic development and raising the well-being of the EAEU peoples are opened.
"Our governments are taking all steps to remove
obstacles still existing in trade in the internal market, – the President of the Kyrgyz Republic stressed. - By eliminating them, we
can achieve even better results". In this regard, and in order to
resolve a number of other integration issues as soon as possible, he proposed
to vest the EEC with additional powers.
Touching upon the Eurasian Economic Union’s activities
on the external track, Sooronbay Jeenbekov said that the Union was always open
for mutually beneficial partnership, and its Member States' governments were
trying their best to consolidate a positive image of the EAEU on the
international stage.
Having agreed with the overall positive assessments of
the Eurasian Economic Union's work, expressed by colleagues, Vladimir Putin,
President of the Russian Federation pointed out that the EAEU was developing
steadily. A voluminous common market has been created, which is successfully
functioning. Integration processes within the Union have the most favorable
impact on the growth of the Member States' economies and contribute to raising the
citizens’ living standards.
"The aggregate GDP of the Union countries
continues growing, – the Russian Head
of State stressed. - Industrial and agricultural production is increasing.
At the same time, our association faces new large-scale challenges. Along with
that, special attention, in our opinion, should be paid to systematic work to
remove barriers to trade in goods and services, and in various market
sectors".
The introduction of Union-wide regulation in the
financial sector is among the priorities. "At the meeting we approved
the Concept for creating a common financial market of the EAEU. This document
will become a "road map" for developing and approving universal rules
for the provision of banking and insurance services and transactions in
securities. The implementation of the measures envisaged by the "road
map" will simplify the access of our countries’ citizens to financial
instruments and make this market segment unified and transparent", - Vladimir
Putin said with confidence.
According to him, the process of improving the Union
legislation in the power industry is progressing at a good pace as well.
Agreements on the formation of the EAEU single electric power market will come
into force in the near future. The common electric power space should be formed
simultaneously with the creation of the Union markets for gas, oil and
petroleum products in 2025. First of all, it is required to complete the
process on unifying the Member States' legislations in the sphere of gas supply
and transportation.
Vladimir Putin also believes that cooperation between
the Union States in the digital economy should be further increased. In
particular, the early launch of a standardized job search system "Work
without borders" suits the joint interests. This project will allow the
EAEU countries’ citizens to learn about free jobs in all Union States online.
"We attach great importance to quickly
implementing the Agreement on the traceability of goods
imported into the EAEU customs territory, - Vladimir Putin stated. - According to our today's decision,
the Eurasian Economic Commission will be granted relevant additional powers.
It is important to ensure transparency of products' distribution in the Union
market, so this requires a full-fledged exchange of legally valid electronic
shipping documents, and the electronic marking of goods needs
to be introduced more intensely. By the way, the pilot
project on marking a number of goods has proved effective
in fighting counterfeit products, and has increased tax
revenues".
Igor Dodon, President of the Republic of Moldova, noted that Moldova's participation
in the EAEU was a priority and a good opportunity for developing its economic
ties and export markets of the Moldovan goods and services. In general, a
positive trend in Moldova's trade with the EAEU countries remains. Last year,
the trade turnover increased by 10%, and in January-July this year it rose by
another 6%.
"We intend to cooperate more closely with the
Eurasian Economic Commission, - Igor Dodon said.
– To implement the agenda of cooperation with the Union on a larger scale and
to take advantage of all the opportunities for deepening cooperation provided
by the status of an observer country. We also plan to study the possibility of the
Republic of Moldova's participation in the Eurasian Development Bank and to resolve
the issue of Moldova's permanent representative at the EEC. The presence of
Moldova’s permanent representative will allow maintaining close contacts with
the Commission, promptly receiving information related to the development of
trade and economic cooperation, customs, technical, sanitary and other
regulations".
Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, thanked Nikol Pashinyan for
the warm welcome and stated that the EAEU was a large market at the crossroads
of Europe and Asia, it had a huge potential for economic growth, especially in
the logistics and digital spheres. "These are all spheres of
Singapore's interest, and cooperation will become a great opportunity for us to
jointly develop our economies", - he declared.
In turn, Hassan Rouhani, President of the
Islamic Republic of Iran, noted that the world system was based on
multilateralization and cooperation between all members of the international
community. All countries must oppose unilateralism and, in accordance with
their international obligations and responsibilities, maintain peace, security,
stability and international order.
"Signing of the Trade and Economic Agreement
between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the EAEU expresses a comprehensive
political vision of Iran, combined with a strong political will to promote the
development of multilateral and regional trade and economic relations. The implementation
of the Agreement is seen as a step towards strengthening multilateral trade
structures”, - Hassan Rouhani emphasized.
Decisions have been adopted on
almost all issues on the agenda. The SEEC Members have approved the Concept for
creating a common financial market of the Eurasian Economic Union and discussed
requirements for distributing the amounts of import customs duties between the
budgets of the Eurasian Economic Union Member States. The SEEC Members have
approved main directions of the Eurasian Economic Union’s international
activities for 2020, the draft Disposition “On harmonizing the legislation of
the EAEU Member States in the sphere of gas transportation and supply between
the Member States".