MOSCOW, 5 February (BelTA) – We need to promote industrial cooperation in high-tech industries in the Eurasian Economic Union, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Mikhail Myasnikovich said at the Digital Almaty Forum 2021 on 4 February, BelTA has learned from the EEC press service.
Mikhail Myasnikovich recalled that Kazakhstan President, Chairman of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined industrial cooperation and digitalization as the key tasks for 2021 in his address to the EAEU heads of state. Now the EAEU priorities include a project to set up wholesale distribution centers initiated by Kazakhstan and a project to launch the ecosystem of digital transport corridors proposed by Belarus together with the EAEU partners.
“We have the intellectual and industrial potential in the EAEU to achieve these goals,” Mikhail Myasnikovich noted. “We need to strengthen development institutions, set up new enterprises to manufacture highly competitive goods for the domestic market and for export, launch import substitution programs, including in high-tech industries.”
According to the EEC, there are currently 17,500 joint ventures between partners in the EAEU, including 2,400 in Belarus. The EAEU has an interest in the investment projects with a total estimated value of about $200 billion, a significant part of which is aimed at promoting integration.
Setting the fundamental foundations of digital infrastructures and ecosystems is envisaged by the strategy for the development of Eurasian economic integration until 2025, approved by the EAEU heads of state on 11 December 2020, Mikhail Myasnikovich noted. The strategy identifies 11 key areas of development, and almost all of them are based on digital platforms, such as a product labelling and traceability system, a cross-border space of trust, the concept of a geographically distributed digital platform of the union that would include national segments and integrated components, digital transformation in intellectual property and many other relevant projects. The Chairman of the EEC Board called on the government agencies and the business community to propose ideas for effective implementation of the strategy.
The plenary session of the forum was attended by the heads of government of the Eurasian Economic Union member states and EAEU observer states.
