Almaty, 8 June 2011. Today’s realities call for boosted interaction and cooperation between all Central Asian economies. This was stated by Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the Eurasian Development Bank’s (EDB) Executive Board, on Wednesday at the Regional Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia, which is being held this week in Vienna.
“The economic development of the countries in the region is seriously challenged and this cannot be fixed without regional integration,” emphasised Mr Finogenov. “Speaking about innovations we need to understand that we cannot achieve the desired results without combining our efforts. For example, an important issue is the development of a shared infrastructure in the region, which includes electric power, transport and water regulation. This is the only base on which we can build industrial clusters, in the agribusiness, mining and power engineering in particular. This approach will help give an impetus to the advancement of each country and the region as a whole. The purpose of the EDB, as a development bank, is to promote these processes in every way. This is also understood by investors who are active in the region. I have no doubt that the political will of the governing bodies of the Central Asian countries will be used to develop this type of cooperation.”
As for the function of the CIS, Igor Finogenov said that this first major integration project of the former Soviet Union had been intended to preserve the links between the countries that date back to the times of the Silk Road and had only been developed during the Soviet era.
“We have obvious achievements: we have preserved the common rail network which transports necessary and significant volumes of goods, and have maintained, to a certain extent, the common power market,” said Finogenov. “However, there are still many losses on this way that need to be recovered. This is the reason why Central Asia has initiated and is successfully implementing new integration projects.”
As an example Igor Finogenov mentioned the concept of the Central Asian Union, the activities implemented within the framework of the SCO and, obviously, the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. Speaking about the Customs Union’s prospects, the Chairman of the EDB’s Executive Board noted that, “Kyrgyzstan is now seriously considering joining the Union, which is another proof of the fact that this integration association has all the chances to attract the maximum number of the Central Asian countries.”
