October 28, 2011EurAsian Union seen benefiting trade
MANILA, Philippines — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is hopeful that its new integration project to be launched next year will usher in a new year of mutually beneficial cooperation between Europe and Asia.
In an article he wrote for Izvestia, a long-running high-circulation daily newspaper in Russia, Putin revealed that it will launch on January 1, 2012 an integration project, dubbed Common Economic Space (CES) of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which will also solidify efforts to bridge Europe and the Asia Pacific, creating the EurAsian Union.
Putin said that the CES is aimed at developing trade and production ties. “We are creating a huge market that will encompass over 165 million consumers, with unified legislation and the free flow of capital, services, and labour force,” he said.
Putin stressed that the project will allow borderless transactions between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
“The CES rooted in coordinated action in key institutional areas such as macroeconomics, ensuring competition, technical regulations, agricultural subsidies, transport, and natural monopolies tariffs,” he said.
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He also cited wider business opportunities in the three countries. “Broad swathes of opportunities will also open up for businesses. I am referring here to new dynamic markets governed by unified standards and regulations for goods and services,” Putin said.
Meanwhile, Putin disclosed that as the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) also becomes fully operational by next year, they are also eyeing on a higher level of integration through the creation of a EurAsian Union.
He revealed that alongside other key players and regional structures, such as the European Union, the United States, China and APEC, the EuraAsian Union will help ensure global sustainable development. “We suggest a powerful supranational association capable of becoming one of the poles in the modern world and serving as an efficient bridge between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific region,” Putin said.
Putin said that the EurAsian Union “will become a focal point for further integration processes since it will be formed by the gradual merging of existing institutions, the Customs Union and the CES.”
He also clarified that the EurAsian Union is not in opposition to any organization.
“We do not intend to cut ourselves off, nor do we plan to stand in opposition to anyone. The EurAsian Union will be based on universal integration principles as an essential part of Greater Europe united by shared values of freedom, democracy, and market laws,” Putin said.
Anchored on the agreement of Russia and the European Union (EU) to form a common economic space in 2003, Putin proposed more sophisticated integration patterns.
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