Almaty, 18 April 2012. The Centre for Integration Studies at the European Development Bank (EDB) is launching a pilot project — The EDB Integration Barometer. In April-May 2012 opinion polls will be conducted in eleven post-Soviet countries to study the integration preferences of the population. The survey will focus on the issues of economic integration: mutual trade and investments, entrepreneurial activities in neighbouring countries, and labour migration, among others. The sample will exceed 12,000 respondents. A report will be prepared after the survey on public opinion about integration and their expectations
Evgeniy Vinokurov, Director, Center for Integration Researches of Eurasian Development Bank, Doctor of Economics.
The overall effect of trade, industrial and technological integration of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine over the next two decades could exceed a trillion dollars. However, this bonus should still be earned.
Twenty years since collapse of the Soviet Union mainly
These conclusions are presented in the new issue of The CIS Macromonitor.
Almaty, 5 April 2011. While the growth of the global economy slowed down to 3.3% because of aggravating debt problems, increased turbulence in financial markets, and worsened economic situation in developed countries, the CIS economies speeded up their growth from 4.4% in 2010 to 4.6% in 2011. Therefore, the economic development of the CIS countries differs from the global trend. This conclusion is made in the new issue of The CIS Macromonitor published by the Research Department of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB)
Former Soviet Union now looks pretty diverse both in the economic development of former Soviet republics and in the nature of political regimes and style of decision-making and conducting of business. However, for these countries integration in many sectors of the economy is natural. Long-term development institutions are established for successful implementation of large projects. RBC talks with deputy chairman of the Executive board of the Eurasian development bank Gennady Zhuzhlev on integration processes in the former Soviet Union and prospective joint projects.
RBC: Gennady Efimovich, Eurasian development bank was created to finance development projects mainly in the former Soviet Union. The founders of the Bank are several states with very different levels of development and ways of managing the economy. How does the Bank organize cooperation with its members?
Gennady Zhuzhlev: Yes, indeed, members of the Bank are countries with different economic potential and conditions. Main founders are Russia and Kazakhstan. They account for the bulk of the investment portfolio: 43% of funded projects to date are located in Kazakhstan, 40% are in Russia and another major Bank’s participant is Belarus (accounting for 10% of the portfolio, although it became a participant of the Bank only in 2010 year. Our goal is economic integration of the former Soviet Union and economic relations can be developed with the help of investments. Therefore, we allocate long-term loans for projects that facilitate integration and growth of economies of member-countries.
RBC: Tell us about the biggest and most interesting investment projects of the Bank
Moscow 3 April 2012. The Eurasian Development Bank’s (EDB) Centre for Integration Studies will host a section on the Eurasian Integration at the Thirteenth International Conference of the Higher School of Economics, which opened today in Moscow. The Conference is supported by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Analysts from the Research Department and EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund Management Team will also represent the EDB at the Conference
Almaty, 2 April 2012. The Eurasian Development Bank’s (EDB) Centre for Integration Studies and the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) start work to create a database of mutual investments in the CIS covering the period from 2009 onwards and intend to monitor integration processes in the region thereof
Almaty, 28 March 2012. Today the Migration and Remittance Peer-Assisted Learning network (MIRPAL) will arrange the videoconference Particularities of the Regulation of Labour Migration in the Common Economic Space (CES). The conference is supported by the World Bank and will link its offices in Almaty, Astana, Bishkek, Dushanbe, Yerevan, Kyiv, Kishinev, Minsk, Moscow, and Tashkent
Almaty, 26 March 2012. Sergei Lebedev, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Executive Secretary of the CIS, arrived today in Almaty to take part in the meeting of the Council of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Member Nations of the CIS. On the first day of his working visit, Mr Lebedev had a meeting with Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the EDB Executive Board, at the Bank’s headquarters in Almaty
Yerevan, 12 March 2012. On 12 March 2012 the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) signed a US $10 million loan agreement with Areximbank-Gazprombank Group under its programme to finance small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). The agreement was signed by Dmitry Zhurba, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, on the part of the EDB and Armen Khandkaryan, General Director, on the part of Areximbank-Gazprombank Group