MINSK, 10 December (BelTA) – We need to increase the use of national currencies in trade between the EAEU countries, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said when speaking at the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council summit on 10 December, BelTA has learned.
The prime minister spoke highly of the chairmanship of Kazakhstan in the EAEU, calling it extremely productive. He also welcomed the interim results in the EAEU in the past year following the adoption of the development strategy of the Eurasian Economic Union until 2025.
Nikol Pashinyan urged to focus on the development of the internal market of the EAEU without barriers, restrictions and exemptions, which will provide a powerful impetus to the economic and industrial growth in the EAEU states, to business, and job creation. "Advancing the integration will contribute to structural transformations in the economies of the EAEU member states, their modernization and diversification, which is extremely important in the context of fluctuations in commodity prices and growing economic turbulence in the world," he said. In his opinion, in order to diversify exports, it is important that the EAEU step up the export of services.
"We should also be working to increase the share of national currencies in trade transactions within the EAEU," Nikol Pashinyan said. "The current inflation and rising prices around the world once again confirm this need."
“It is obvious that reaching the outstripping pace of development is possible with the implementation of specific high-tech projects through the development of technological chains, joint engineering laboratories, technological systems,” the prime minister said. He is convinced that the development of the EAEU industrial potential directly depend on the digitalization of the industrial environment and the development of microelectronics.
Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov supported Nikol Pashinyan's proposal to increase the share of settlements in national currencies.
“In 2021, despite the existing restrictions and barriers, the union moved forward confidently and showed a strong pace of implementation of its tasks,” said the president of Kyrgyzstan, the country that is to preside in the EAEU in 2022.
“The current crisis and its damaging impact on the economy of the whole union, including the growth of poverty, reduction of jobs and the growing gap in development, certainly require special attention to the sustainable development of the integration association,” Sadyr Japarov said. In his words, it is necessary to jointly implement effective mechanisms to support cooperative projects, develop logistics infrastructure and commodity distribution systems.
The president of Kyrgyzstan believes that the use of foreign currency in mutual settlements continues to be one of the circumstances that increase the impact of the crisis on the economies of the EAEU countries. “With the growing influence of external inflationary factors and in order to increase the competitiveness of our economies, it is necessary to use national currencies more actively in the EAEU settlements. In this regard, the Commission together with the governments of our countries should prepare specific proposals on the matter,” Sadyr Japarov stressed.
