ASTANA – Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov attended the first meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) intergovernmental council, held Feb. 6 in Moscow. The prime ministers of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, Belarus Andrei Kobyakov, Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan and Kyrgyzstan Djoomart Otorbayev also attended the meeting.
During the meeting, the parties discussed a wide range of issues on further expansion of the integration interaction within the union, including aspects of the accession of Kyrgyzstan.
“We have reached an amicable agreement and, in general, the draft protocol on the accession of Kyrgyzstan is ready. Expansion of the Eurasian Economic Union, in addition to increasing the common economic space, provides attractiveness to the integration association and additional stability to the development of the economies of the member states of the union. The basis is the deepening of industrial and agro-industrial connections and development of transport and logistics and transit potential of the union. Amid the current difficult economic conditions, these are essential factors,” said Kazakh First Deputy Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev at the meeting of the Eurasian Economic Commission, which met Feb. 4 in Moscow.
The heads of government also reviewed the priority directions of trade and economic cooperation with key EAEU partners, including China.
Following the meeting, the council approved a number of documents concerning the financing of a pilot project to introduce uniform labelling for certain types of light industrial products within the customs union territory and common economic space. The documents will allow the states to control the circulation of goods and ensure the legality of the import and production of goods in the territories of the member states. Particularly,it was decided to label clothing and fur articles at the initial stage. They also touched upon developing the concept of creating the Eurasian machine-tool engineering centre, which would be aimed at enhancing inter-operability between companies within the EAEU and would contribute to the modernisation of industrial production through the use of innovative machine-tool equipment produced in union territory. The engineering centre will also provide training, production, sale and service of integrated technology solutions and other engineering and consulting services to industrial enterprises of the member states.
The next meeting of the EAEU intergovernmental council will be held in May 2015 in Burabai (Borovoye), Kazakhstan.
In the framework of his visit, Massimov met with his Russian counterpart to discuss the progress in the ongoing implementation of agreements on cooperation between Russia and Kazakhstan, particularly in the economic, industrial and investment fields.
EAEU was established in May 2014 through an agreement signed by the presidents of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russia Vladimir Putin and Belarus Alexander Lukashenko which became effective Jan. 1. Thus, the idea of a common Eurasian space announced by Nazarbayev during a March 1994 lecture at Moscow State University received practical implementation. EAEU member states currently include Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Armenia, while Kyrgyzstan is expected to accede to the union in May. Establishing EAEU advanced the member countries to a higher level of integration, forming the largest market in the CIS (170 million people) which will be a new centre of economic development.
