Moscow, 19 June 2015. Starting 15 June 2015, the Eurasian Economic Community’s (EurAsEC) Anti-Crisis Fund is renamed as the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD). In addition to financial and investment credits, it will now provide grants to its member states. The respective resolutions were passed by the Fund’s Council on 2 July 2014. The member countries needed to implement internal procedures to sign protocols amending the Fund’s foundation documents
St. Petersburg, 18 June 2015. One of the main objectives of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is to develop trans-border infrastructure inside it and on its western, eastern and southern borders. This will make it possible for the EAEU to find its niche in the international division of labour. Dmitry Pankin, Chairman of the Management Board at Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), said this at the session The Eurasian Economic Union: A New Compass in Global Economic Relations at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) today.
“In this context trans-border infrastructure projects have significant effects in terms of ensuring transit through the EAEU and the movement of goods, services and labour,” he emphasised. However, these require significant investment and “long” money. Dmitry Pankin believes that development banks are an effective instrument for this. “The EAEU should avail itself of the opportunities offered by these institutions to make its own economic and technological breakthrough,” he said.
Dmitry Pankin pointed out that there were three key types of infrastructure to focus on: transport (rail and motor), energy and telecommunications.
Speaking about energy infrastructure in the EAEU, Dmitry Pankin emphasised the need for creating common electricity markets and investing in trans-border exports. He said, in particular, that, “The CIS countries have inherited from the Soviet Union common engineering standards and developed trans-border power transmission grids, which can become the basis for international cooperation. This is a great advantage. Yet, we have a disadvantage as well: the single market in electricity has been lost.” Dmitry Pankin believes that a common electricity market should be restored in the EAEU and that investment in electricity export schemes should be made
St. Petersburg, 15 June 2015. Low-income Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan need to transform their exports of labour into exports of value-added goods and services. The need for foreign investment and for the accumulation of labour migrants’ revenues in labour-intensive and export-orientated industries of these countries is growing. This is confirmed by Eurasian Development Bank’s (EDB) Centre for Integration Studies in its report Labour Migration and Labour-Intensive Sectors in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan: Opportunities for Human Development in Central Asia prepared in the framework of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) project Migration, Remittances and Human Development in Central Asian Countries
Almaty, 3 June 2015. Dmitry Pankin, Chairman of the Management Board at Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), met with Sir Suma Chakrabarti, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
At the negotiations about possible cooperation the sides expressed their mutual interest in co-financing projects (primarily large infrastructure initiatives) in their member states. “Our banks have a positive experience of joint participation in the public-private partnership projects to build the Western High-Speed Diameter road and reconstruct Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg,” Dmitry Pankin said. He proposed that the EBRD consider the possibility of providing joint loans on highly beneficial conditions for road construction and energy projects
On 28 May Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan, met with Dmitry Pankin, Chairman of the Management Board at Eurasian Development Bank (EDB).
The Senate’s speaker wished Dmitry Pankin success in his work as the head of EDB and pointed out that the Bank was expected to play a more proactive part in the fulfilment of Nurly Zhol, the new economic policy promulgated by the Head of State, because it envisages major construction of transport infrastructure and logistics facilities in Kazakhstan in order to fully use the transit and transport potential of the country on the Eurasian scale. “The entry into effect of the Agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union involves the Bank’s activation in this area as well,” said Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
He also told Dmitry Pankin about the Plan of the Nation, which was intended to ensure the fulfilment of five institutional reforms, bring Kazakhstan to a new stage of development and help it become one of the most developed countries in the world.
Dmitry Pankin emphasised that he planned to give a new impetus to the Bank’s development in order to more effectively use its potential
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Almaty, 18 May 2015. Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) announces its 6th competition among research and publishing projects.
The winners will be provided with a grant to undertake research into or publish monographs on integration. The competition is held every year by the EDB Technical Assistance Fund under the Regional Integration Research Programme.
The competition will run from 18 May to 2 July 2015.
We invite individual researchers or groups of two to four specialists from institutions and organisations from the CIS, primarily the Bank’s member states.
Researchers or groups of specialists, who have received grants in three previous competitions, may not take part in this round
Almaty, 15 May 2015. The future of Eurasian energy markets was the focus of discussion between EU and EEU officials and experts who took part in the high-level workshop in Laxenburg, Austria, this week.
The discussion took place in the framework of the international project Challenges and Opportunities of Economic Integration within a Wider European and Eurasian Space co-organised by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), and the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC)
Almaty, 7 May 2015. The delegation of Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) took part in the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which is traditionally held in the first days of May in one of its member states. The current 48th session was arranged in the capital of Azerbaijan
Yerevan, 15 April 2015. On
During the visit Dmitry Pankin met with Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan to discuss the preliminary results of EDB’s five years of work in Armenia and key areas for its future operations in the country