Consulting services – Eurasian Development Bank

The staff of the Centre has wide expertise and can offer high-quality consultancy services to academic, expert, and business communities. The Centre can also engage other specialists from the Bank as well as an extended pool of professionals in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and outside it.

Areas of the Centre’s expertise:

Consulting projects:

• Project for Research Center “International Trade and Integration” (2017)

Subject matter: development of transport corridors within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, analytical review of cargo flows in weight and value terms, preparation of proposals regarding localization of a logistical hubs network in the territory of the Russian Federation, development of recommendations on possible creation of an interlinked system of transport hubs and logistical centers in the territory of EAEU member states subject to the prospects of expansion of emerging trans-Eurasian transport corridors along the PRC-EAEU-EU axis and growth of associated traffic flows.

• Project for Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (2017)

An agreement has been concluded with the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics to complete certain research works, including analytical review of investment flows between the EAEU and the EU, the ASEAN, East Asian countries, etc., on the basis of an ongoing EDB Centre for Integration Studies’ project “Monitoring of Mutual Investments”, and development of recommendations on investment regimes to be used in dealings with those countries and associations. The purpose of the project is to design various options and algorithms for cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union, third countries, and mega-regional associations (including the newly created Comprehensive Regional Economic Partnerships), and new models for interaction with ASEAN, APEC, SCO and EU member states subject to emerging opportunities for efficient realization of the guidelines of international cooperation, and for effective expansion of economic ties between the EAEU and third countries within the context of the Greater Eurasia Partnership project.

• Project for the Eurasian Economic Commission (2017)

Consulting on financial statistics matters, and provision of analytical materials on the basis of the ongoing EDB Centre for Integration Studies’ project “Monitoring of Mutual Investments”. The need for cooperation arose due to implementation of the EAEU Program for Development of Integration in the Area of Statistics for 2016-2020 envisaging introduction of international standards. The EDB Centre for Integration Studies provides to the EEC consulting services on international financial statistics standards in the form of workshops, videoconferences, and written consultations with the participation of experts from the OECD and the National Bank of Belgium.

• Сonsulting project commissioned by the Russian Foreign Trade Academy under the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation for the benefit of the EEC within the framework of a research project styled Comprehensive Analysis of Opportunities and Prospects of Interfacing the Main Directions of Integration and Infrastructural Development of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt within the Context of Creation of New Global Economic Partnerships and the Changes Occurring in the Global Economic System (2016)

One of the priority areas of international activity of the EAEU is interaction with its trade and economic partners, including the People's Republic of China. In 2016, N.A. Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Chairman of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, addressed the heads of EAEU member states with an initiative designed to expand trade and economic ties between the EAEU and its main partners and emerging markets, and give an impetus to the process of enhancing the role of the EAEU in the Eurasian continent.

The research provides scientific, methodological, informational, and analytical substantiation of the interface between the EAEU and the SREB, and formulates specific proposals regarding forward-looking forms of cooperation within the framework of the interface process that will be consistent with the national interests of all EAEU member states, support diversification of their economies and expansion of cooperative ties between them, and contribute to their economic growth based on continued sustainable development of integration processes in the Eurasian space, subject to the changes occurring in the global economic system.

• Large-scale project aimed at analysis of monetary and financial integration in the EAEU (2015)

On March 10, 2015, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin addressed the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia) and the Russian Government with the request to elaborate on the issues of monetary integration in the EAEU. This task raised a huge discussion among the experts and government officials. However, until now there was a lack of professional economic knowledge and expertise on this topic. The abovementioned project of EDB Centre for Integration Studies substantially fills this gap.

Coordinated monetary and fiscal policy in the EAEU countries would allow the dissolution of the cross-country monetary risks in the EAEU and, thus, would lead to cost reduction in mutual trade and investments. The latter would expand the benefits for the EAEU countries from the more intensive economic cooperation with each other.

• “Expanding the DSGE model complex with new sectors and country blocs”
  (2014 Q2 — 2014 Q4)

Executors: EDB Centre for Integration Studies, OGResearch

In 2013, the EDB Centre for Integration Studies in cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Commission has completed a major joint-project, aiming to develop a DSGE model complex for economic forecasting and policy analysis. Since 2014, the complex has been successfully used to form medium-term forecasts and economic policy recommendations. In 2014, the Centre implemented a paid consulting project aiming to expand the analytical capabilities of the current model complex. By the end of 2014, two general equilibrium models for Kyrgyzstan and Armenia were built. Alongside a new block of econometric models was developed for the sake of more detailed forecasts of the macroeconomic situation in five countries — Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.

• “Assessment of the economic effects from abolition of non-tariff barriers to mutual trade in the EEU”
  (2014 Q1 — 2014 Q4)

Executors: EDB Centre for Integration Studies

In 2014, the EDB Centre for Integration Studies started a large paid consulting project aiming to determine the economic effects from the abolition of non-tariff barriers to trade in the CU. The project was initiated by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Republic of Belarus. The customer and the beneficiary of the project was the Eurasian Economic Commission. The project involved both the qualitative and quantitative analysis of this problem. The Centre analyzed international experience and methodology for determining non-tariff barriers in trade and for assessing economic effects from their mutual abolition. A classification and analysis of the preliminary list of exceptions, limitations, and other barriers to mutual trade prepared by the Commission are performed on the criteria of relevance for each individual state. Business surveys were conducted for more than 500 enterprises in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. For quantitative evaluation of the economic effects from mutual abolition of barriers the respective social accounting matrices were made for all the countries in the Union. Then a computable general equilibrium model was constructed, based on which the estimation of economic benefits from abolition of barriers was done.

• “Financial Programming of Major Economic Sectors of the SES States”
  (2012 Q4 — 2013 Q2)

Executor: Eurasian Development Bank

Within the framework of its consultancy services the EDB divisions have been implementing the project aimed to create a system of financial programming models of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan for the benefit of the Eurasian Economic Commission. Similar models are widely used by international financial organizations. They are meant to become a tool for the short-term forecasting of the Single Economic Space economy by the Eurasian Commission. The project was a team-work of the EDB Analytical Department, EurAsEU Anti-Crisis Fund and the EDB Centre for Integration Studies.

• “Development of the system of analysis and macroeconomic forecasting in the SES on the basis of dynamic computable general equilibrium models (DSGE)”
  (2013 Q2-Q4)

Executors: EDB Centre for Integration Studies, OGResearch

This is a major consulting project aiming at the creation of a comprehensive DSGE econometric modeling system. DSGE models would provide the Eurasian Economic Commission with a powerful and flexible mid-term forecasting tool. It would substantially widen its abilities to do quantitative macroeconomic analysis, including budget and fiscal policies, and build mutually beneficial relationships with research institutions, government bodies and monetary authorities.