Astana, Kazakhstan, Dec.4
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:
It is still too early to expect some positive or negative super-effect from Eurasian integration, said Advisor to the Chairman of the Kazakh Kaznex Invest National Agency for Export and Investment Saule Akhmetova.
"I haven't seen or read such studies to directly correlate the improvement or deterioration of life when joining the Customs Union," said Saule Akhmetova, speaking Dec.4 at a meeting of the Expert Council on the topic "Integration and people: the territory of opportunities." "It is still too early to expect some positive or negative super-effect of Eurasian integration, it is necessary to study the issue."
During the meeting, the experts concluded that among the general economic effects of the Eurasian Union is the increase of average wages, jobs, increase of production, and stimulation of competition. Moreover, the university diplomas of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAU), will be accepted in other countries as well, except for some specialties.
In addition, recent polls show that the mass expectations of people from EAU are primarily economic in nature.
"Integration is primarily an economic category, because the economy determines everything, including the social sphere," said Akhmetova. "We work directly with the business, and I can say that the EAU countries are most interesting for domestic business. Both the markets of sale and supply markets are interesting ones."
Nevertheless, the expert does not hide the fact that the integration to the EAU has a lot of problems, since the economy of the countries is different.
"Kazakh economy is quite liberal in many ways: not only lower the tax burden is, there is also a free trade zone, etc., more transparency between government and business, especially the medium-sized business," said Akhmetova.
She said that in addition, Kazakhstan lacks negotiating power.
"Being a young state, we do not know how to negotiate and find common ground, see our advantages, defend them, argue, give justification, etc.," said the expert. "The matter rests not only in the officials, the same situation is observed at the level of industry associations, managers of specific enterprises."
But at the same time, trade relations between the countries of the EAU have a solid foundation, because they share the mentality, culture and other common features, she said.
"Roughly speaking, it is easy for a Kazakh enterprise to make contact and to negotiate with Russian and Belarusian enterprises not only because of the common language, but also because of the lifestyle and thinking," Akhmetova said.
She said the common market is really attractive for Kazakhstan, because, first of all, it allows the Kazakh business to learn to work with other countries.
"After all, the majority of domestic entrepreneurs are focused in the domestic market. But the business perfectly understands everything, and now entrepreneurs are joining forces to solve all integration issues and problems. And there are a lot of them," Akhmetova added.
She said despite the fact that Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus share a common history, their development paths were different, and therefore their economies are differ so much.
"As for the ordinary consumers, for example, I can't say I was very affected that we live within the Customs Union or that soon we will live within the EAU. There maybe more Russian goods than Chinese, there have appeared the Belarusian goods that we had rarely seen," the expert said.
She believes that if all the three countries achieve free movement within the EAU, as is the case in the EU, it will be very positive.
"That is, there will not be any need in paperwork, permits, registrations," she added.
"I often hear from the enterprises-producers, especially of food products, that the integration process is a required process. They say they are interested in the Russian markets. It is no a secret that the Siberia, the Far North are a bottomless market for domestic fruit and vegetables and any other food product," the expert said.
In addition, she said, the EU held a share of about 30 percent in the Russian market and now, after Russia's restrictions on imports of European goods, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries can take this niche.
"Aside from that, the Russians take a closer look at Kazakhstan," she said, adding "targeted purchases are carried out here".
"They are already thinking about what makes sense, and about starting production here. And in this case the EAU simplifies the Russian businessmen coming to Kazakhstan for supplying their own market," Akhmetova said.