Customs Union will give our business synergies - Chairman EDB I. Finogenov
According to him, the establishment of the bank in 2006 on the initiative of the Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan as a financial instrument of integration in the Eurasian space can be regarded as an integration breakthrough.
"I am convinced that the Customs Union will give our business synergies. After all, the main result of our work we consider the effect of integration implemented EDB projects ", - the head of the bank said.
The investment portfolio of the EDB exceeds USD one billion. The banker said that developments have the potential to generate mutual trade flows of USD 780 million, which allows to increase mutual trade between Russia and Kazakhstan, almost by 10% a year, and, importantly, excluding hydrocarbons. In addition, the growth of mutual investments of banks implementable projects is USD 270 million.
"It is obvious that the establishment of the Customs Union will ensure faster growth of trade between participating countries and generally improve their investment attractiveness. This will lead to improve the efficiency of the bank ", - I. Finogenov said.
One of the problems is the development of transport corridors of the EurAsEC. In particular, the provision of technical assistance in developing a comprehensive plan for infrastructure development of roads and railways, that included in the list of transport routes EurAsEC are elaborated. In addition, the Bank is exploring the possibility of investing a project to build a highway "Western Europe - Western China" length of more than 8,5 thousand km. Implementation of these projects will allow to use a huge transport-transit potential of participants-members of the Community.
I. Finogenov noted that the EurAsEC countries, firstly Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia are the land bridge between the world's major producers and consumers. According to experts, sea shipping companies absorb the lion's share of revenues from international transit.
"The competitive advantage of the land route is speed. For example, the time of goods transportation on the way Europe - Russia - Kazakhstan - China is 10-14 days. A delivery by sea route via the Suez Canal take up to 45 days. So we can expect that the gravitating part of the transit time factor, and this according to our estimates 16 million tons of cargo a year, can be transferred to the transport backbone of the EurAsEC, "- the banker said. According to him, it is possibly to double the transit potential of the EurAsEC by 2020 year.
"We understand that formation of the Customs Union is a complex multifaceted process that requires coordination among customs, tax, and transport departments of the member-states. Consequently, the bank is willing to consider options for the provision of technical assistance in the development and implementation of specific programs and pilot projects to further release of significant investment projects in this sphere.
In this issue we look forward to active cooperation with the Secretariat of the Integration Committee of EurAsEC, Customs Union Commission and business community ", - I. Finogenov said.
The banker believes that the agreement - a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Secretariat of the Integration Committee of Eurasian Economic Community and the Eurasian Business Council will help to make this work more effective. In his view, the most effective work will be in the case if the interaction with the business community will be permanent in nature, and the exchange of information on a continuing basis.
I. Finogenov informed that the EDB is getting involved in implementation of projects of high technology. "Now we consider a number of projects in Kazakhstan and Russia, including cooperation with Russian Corporation of nanotechnologies - he said.