EEC Minister Veronika Nikishina: "Trade agreements can seriously stimulate mutually beneficial technological and investment development of the Union countries”
Within the framework of the Eurasian Week Forum & Expo in Skolkovo Innovation Centre, a discussion session on "The EAEU as a player in the market of high technologies: potential and real possibilities of integration” was held.
The Member of the Board - Minister in charge of Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission Veronika Nikishina, Minister of Trade and Industry of Singapore Koh Poh Koon, Park Ro-byug, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea in the Russian Federation, head of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Gregory Ivliev, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Development Bank Dmitry Pankin spoke at the event.
Addressing the participants of the discussion session, the EEC Trade Minister Veronika Nikishina said that there is a great potential in the EAEU for the development of the innovative economy. The EEC Minister said, "We expect that innovation will be the driver of our Union’s economy development and will give a serious value added to the economic growth."
According to Veronika Nikishina, the Union countries carried out consistent work on the development of modern industries, including through the adoption of national policies for the development of nanotechnologies. This area is regarded by the parties as an economic sector, which can provide increased competitiveness of other industries.
"A good example is the metallurgy, which belongs to priority sectors of the EAEU economies. The Union countries are aimed at creating competitive industries, modernization of existing enterprises of the industry in order to reduce resource and energy consumption. Particular attention is paid to the development of innovation for technologies of extraction and complex processing of raw materials, development of new products and the active involvement of the scientific and technical potential of the industry in innovation processes," said the EEC Minister during the discussion session.
The EEC Minister also stressed that transition to the innovative economy should contribute to the development of foreign trade of the EAEU Member States, which was one of the key tasks of the Union trade policies.
"The most effective instrument to implement the trade policy is, in our view, the conclusion of trade agreements. In October 2016, the first agreement of this kind in the Union, the free trade agreement with Vietnam, has already entered into force. In addition, negotiations on trade agreements with People's Republic of China, the State of Israel and the Republic of Serbia were started. There is a principal opportunity to begin negotiations with the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Republic of India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of Singapore. Other partners also demonstrate interest to conclude similar agreements with the EAEU, as they want to be the first to come to the EAEU market still free from the system of preferential agreements," Veronika Nikishina added.
The EEC Minister particularly noted that such agreements with these necessarily incorporated conditions can substantially stimulate mutually beneficial technological and investment cooperation with foreign partners.
During the presentations and discussions, the participants rated the investment potential for the development of innovative industries in the EAEU, discussed structural changes that could attract business and encourage imports of technologies, as well as identified foreign economic partners for mutually beneficial cooperation, build-up of cooperation in the technological sphere.
Press-release at the official Eurasian Economic Commission web-site