Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
MINSK, June 26 (Xinhua) — The 4th Eurasian Economic Forum opened in Minsk on Thursday. Its participants will discuss issues of Eurasian integration. Key topics include development of industry and agriculture, regional cooperation, digital transformation, the potential of artificial intelligence, integration of labor markets, and customs control.
The forum is being held during Belarus’s presidency of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and the main topic is “Strategy for Eurasian Economic Integration: Results and Prospects.” The event will last for two days. In addition to the plenary session, there will be 35 sectional sessions. More than 2,700 representatives of business and political circles, international organizations and the media from more than 30 countries are taking part in the forum.
On the first day, the forum was attended by the presidents of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Russia Vladimir Putin, Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan joined the meeting via video link.
In his speech, A. Lukashenko outlined the contours of the updated version of the Eurasian Economic Union. “When the treaty on the union was signed, 2025 was defined as a kind of horizon, beyond which a new stage in the activities of the union would begin. And today we have every reason to present individual elements of the union 2.0. In a situation of global turbulence, it is important not to trail behind events, but to influence the global agenda in a positive way, to have well-thought-out models for responding to external challenges,” the Belarusian leader said.
A. Lukashenko drew attention to the fact that the EAEU GDP is only about 4 percent of the world GDP. “What does this mean? That the potential of our integration association is not fully utilized. And over the next 10 years, we must at least double this figure, giving new impetus to integration,” the Belarusian president emphasized and added that some of the most important indicators in the EAEU’s activities have not been met. In many ways, according to him, the solution to these problems depends on the Eurasian Economic Commission and the heads of the member states of the association.
The Eurasian Economic Union was created in 2015. The union includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. The EAEU was created for the purpose of comprehensive modernization, cooperation and increasing the competitiveness of national economies and creating conditions for stable development in the interests of raising the standard of living of the population of the member states. –0–