EDB to survey public opinion about Eurasian integration in the CIS
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.
«State bodies, business structures, and the expert community need reliable and systematised sociological information about integration processes,» Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the EDB Executive Board, said. «We need to understand and take into account public attitudes to integration and integration institutes. Deepening economic integration within the framework of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space causes the necessity of systematic and highly professional work in this area.»
The Centre for Integration Studies’ partner in the project is the Eurasian Monitor, an international research agency and a large consortium which conducts regular sociological surveys in the post-Soviet space. The EDB Integration Barometer poll will be conducted annually in the form of monitoring to measure long-term public opinion trends.
The first results of the survey will be available in July 2012.
Additional Information
The Eurasian Development Bank is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with the mission to facilitate the development of market economies, sustainable economic growth and the expansion of trade and other economic ties in its member states. The EDB’s charter capital exceeds US $1.5 billion. The member states of the Bank are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan. Read more at https://www.eabr.org.
The Centre for Integration Studies is a specialised research centre opened by EDB in 2011. Its main objectives include the organisation of research and the preparation of reports and recommendations on regional economic integration. Read more about the Centre for Integration Studies’ projects and publications at www.eabr.org/r/research/analytics/centre/.