The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Alikhan Smailov, said that the possibilities of Eurasian integration are not being used to the full, Zakon.kz reports.
The head of the government of Kazakhstan in his speech noted the positive dynamics of the economic indicators of the Union. In 2022, the volume of industrial production in the EAEU amounted to $1.5 trillion, including in Kazakhstan - more than $100 billion with an increase of 1.1%. The volume of agricultural production also increased by more than 5%, with the largest increase observed in Kazakhstan - over 9%, Smailov said.
At the same time, Smailov emphasized that these indicators do not correspond to the real potential of the Eurasian Economic Union. He believes that the possibilities of Eurasian integration are not being fully used.
"Despite the current positive dynamics in the removal of barriers, there are still elements of customs control at internal borders, in fact there is no national regime in public procurement, sanitary and veterinary restrictions are widely applied. All this does not allow the business of our countries to fully experience the benefits of the EAEU. The priority should be the formation of seamless trade flows in the space of the Eurasian Economic Union. Accelerated automation of information exchange will increase the competitiveness of our goods and economies as a whole. It will also give an additional impetus to the development of the transit potential of our states, strengthen cooperation ties between the subjects of the EAEU countries," the Kazakh Prime Minister said .
Kazakhstan sees further development of the Eurasian economic integration in the creation and implementation of specific economic projects. And there are a number of areas that are not given enough attention - agreements in the field of shipping, transit, access to infrastructure, digitalization of public procurement, as well as the full functioning of the alcohol and tobacco markets, Smailov added.
Earlier, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan expressed concern about rising food prices in the EAEU countries. In this regard, I suggested to my colleagues to create joint projects for the production of food products, to develop greenhouse farms, feedlots.
On February 2-3, in the Kazakh city of Almaty, a meeting of the heads of the EAEU Governments was held, which was attended by the heads of the Governments of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, as well as the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
February 3, 2023