The EEC Minister Timur Suleimenov: "Creation of a common market of services means for the business serious reduction of time, financial and labor costs"

The session was attended by representatives of the EEC, authorized bodies, development institutions, business associations, business entities and the expert community of the Union Member States.
Opening the session, Timur Suleimenov said: "Despite the relatively short period of the participation of the representatives of the Kyrgyz Republic in the work of the Union bodies, it can be stated with confidence that the Kyrgyz governmental authorities and business are actively involved in the process of identifying barriers that affect doing business, in the development of institutions to support small and medium-sized businesses, as well as in the procedures for assessing regulatory impacts of the EEC draft decisions."
The Minister of Economy of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan Arzybek Kozhoshev in his turn recalled that the moment of accession of Kyrgyzstan to the Union had coincided with the global economic crisis. However, the growth of the national economy of the republic in 2015 amounted to 3.5%," Arzybek Kozhoshev said. “Within the Union customs procedures was abolished, common technical regulations came into effect, check points were equipped, and the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund and the Guarantee Fund for lending business were established. In addition, the Kyrgyz Government is working to improve the legal and regulatory framework so that entrepreneurs could take full advantage of the Eurasian Economic Union."
Representatives of the EEC reported on the establishment of a common market of services within the Union. "We must remember that the countries of the Union trade not only in goods but also in services,” Timur Suleimenov said. Previously, provision of services was regulated by national law only. The entrepreneur had to register, to establish a legal entity, to obtain a license, etc. Thanks to the Treaty on the Union, additional national licenses and other permits for activities in many services sectors are no longer required. For example, if a Belarusian company has a license for construction, it can perform construction works both in Russia and Kyrgyzstan. For businesses, this means a serious saving temporary costs, financial and labor expenses.” The EEC Minister also recalled that in the framework of the Union protective measures in respect of investment were also in effect. "If the investment is expropriated, the entrepreneur may apply for support from the Commission,” Timur Suleimenov said. “This is a serious novel.”
The Director of the EEC Business Development Department Baurzhan Bekeshev noted that in assessing the regulatory impact of the draft decisions of the Commission about 60% of comments and proposals of the business community and the specialized Working Group were taken into account. He also said that pilot projects had been launched on the use of quantitative methods within the ARI procedure and on the evaluation of the actual impact of the decisions taken by the Commission.
With a view of the speeches made by the representatives of the business community, the Committee Members recognized that there is a need to expedite the application of unified railway tariffs for cargoes of the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as to ensure freedom of "internal" transit through the territory of the Russian Federation in other Member States of the Union of the products originating from the countries against which Russia introduced special economic measures (contra-sanctions).
Timur Suleimenov called on the business community of all the Member States to come up with a consolidated position on the need to extend the transitional period that has to expire on January 1, 2017, during which goods from free (special economic areas) are exempted from payment of customs duties and taxes.
In addition, the entrepreneurs were informed of the decisions taken by the Commission aimed at halting the implementation of phytosanitary control on the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border, as well as on resolving issues of interaction between the authorized bodies of the Union Member States in the conditions of imposition of unilateral sanitary, quarantine phyto-sanitary or veterinary and sanitary measures.
During the session, the representatives of the business community of the Kyrgyz Republic put the issue of mutual recognition of hallmarks on jewelry in the Member States of the Union. The EEC representatives told about the draft Agreement that is currently in development on the specifics of conducting transactions with precious metals and precious stones in the Eurasian Economic Union. The draft document is already provided for the mutual recognition of jewelry hallmarks by all the Member States.
Thus, after the conclusion and entry into force of an international treaty within the Union, there will be no need to duplicate the procedures for putting hallmarks.
The Session also considered the practice of double taxation for the provision of telecommunications services in the Kyrgyz Republic. The members of the Advisory Committee discussed the possibility of exemption from VAT of services for aircraft maintenance provided for the airlines of Kyrgyzstan in the Russian airports.
Press-release at the official Eurasian Economic Commission web-site