St. Petersburg, 15 June 2011. The deepening processes of regional economic integration in Eurasia, which began with the creation of the Customs Union between Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus, and continue towards the formation of the Common Economic Space, call for adequate analytical support. For this purpose, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) had set up the Integration Research Centre (IRC). This was announced today at a press conference.
The Centre began its work this June. According to the participants in the press conference Vladimir Yasinsky, EDB’s Head of Research, Evgeny Vinokurov, IRC Director, and Gennady Zhuzhlev, Deputy Chairman of the EDB Executive Board and Managing Director (Projects), the IRC’s objectives include the arrangement of the research work and drafting reports and recommendations to the governments of the EDB member states on the issues relating to regional economic integration.
“In their investment and lending activities and in their research work as well, both the Eurasian Development Bank as a whole and the IRC as a structure set up by it are intended to advance integration processes in the member states. We are an integration bank,” said Vladimir Yasinsky. “The Centre will be forming research tools for the EDB member states on their way towards economic integration: the Customs Union — the Common Economic Space — the Eurasian Economic Union.”
The IRC research priorities include:
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Trade, economic and corporate integration, including economic impact assessment of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, harmonisation of legislation, activities of corporate entities in the post-Soviet space, and the formation of “Eurasian transnational corporations;”
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Foreign exchange and financial integration, including stock market integration and bank expansion, as well as the introduction of a common currency and a settlement currency in the region; and
- Theoretical comprehension of the Eurasian integration on the basis of regional integration theories developed by the global scientific community; promotion of ideas of the Eurasian integration through analytical publications (magazines, almanacs, reviews, and reports), conferences and roundtables.
“Currently, there is a lack of analytical information on regional economic integration in the post-Soviet space,” said Gennady Zhuzhlev. “For this reason, in the long run, the IRC may become the main source of information and analytical data on the region, which will be used, inter alia, to develop investment projects with an integration component. This will definitely foster decision making on the financing of new projects in the EDB member states.”
In 2011, the IRC plans to implement the following projects:
- Comprehensive Macroeconomic Assessment of Various Forms of Deep Economic Integration between Ukraine and the Member States of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space;
- Economic Impact Assessment of the Kyrgyz Republic Joining the Customs Union;
- Labour Migration in the CIS; and
- Russia and Central Asia: Issues of Trade Integration.
The participants of the press conference noted that the IRC was not a “greenfield” project. Since 2006, the EDB has regularly published analytical industry reviews, the quarterly
Eurasian Economic Integration, the yearly Eurasian Integration Yearbook, and various digests. In addition to that, in 2009 the Bank implemented a research project “System of Indicators of Eurasian Integration (SIEI).”
This flagship of the EDB analytics will be advanced by the IRC and will become, in the foreseeable future, a yearly research. The SIEI calculation results and analysis will be published and submitted to the government bodies of the EDB member states, as well as to the region’s integration organisations.
In addition, the IRC will set up a structured database of cross-border investments by the countries in the region. The database will use the results of continuous monitoring of the activities of economic agents, which will be performed using all available channels. As distinct from the existing statistical methods applied by the countries in the region, this will provide for reflecting the processes and results in this area more adequately.
“First of all, the Centre needs to become an authoritative ‘technician’ — a reliable provider of applied economic analysis of integration. Then the Centre should assume a more proactive profile — it should determine the agenda rather than passively collect and process it,” emphasised Evgeny Vinokurov. “Eurasia has double analytical and research dimension for the IRC. First, and most important, this is a developing system of integration links in the post-Soviet space, with a long-lasting common history, fundamental macroeconomic logic, and tough external competition. This is about the Customs Union, the Common Economic Space, and integration of financial markets. Second, in the long run, this is continental Eurasian integration as a global economic challenge.”
