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Belarusian Prime Minister Aliaksandr Turchyn proposed that his counterparts reset industrial cooperation within the EAEU at a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council.
“Our industrial potential is growing at an accelerated pace, has a significant resource base and can serve as a driving force for European and Eurasian industrial cooperation. Each of us has our own strengths and high-level expertise in various fields. The priority task is to combine these strengths effectively and turn this potential into joint products, technologies and new markets. To this end, we believe it is necessary to take the following steps. First, reset our approach to industrial cooperation,” he said.
Turchyn also outlined problems with the existing mechanism for supporting industrial projects within the EAEU. This is not the first time he has raised these concerns.
“Belarus sees significant potential for joint work in mechanical engineering, the production of components and equipment, microelectronics, the chemical industry, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, new materials and information technology. However, the main criterion for the effectiveness of our work should not be a list of areas, but the emergence of real joint projects and products that are competitive both in the EAEU market and in external markets. The first steps toward this have been taken within the EAEU.
The pilot mechanism for financing joint cooperation projects has been in operation for its third year. At the same time, its weaknesses have become apparent in practice. The administrative burden and lengthy project selection process by the commission make the mechanism less attractive to medium-sized businesses. There are also questions about the projects themselves: a lack of an innovative component and duplicative production facilities.
Every project should begin not with a search for a formal number of participants, but with a specific economic objective: Who will consume the product? What expertise is needed? Where will production be organized? What will the end market be? I believe that the approaches to financing all or certain groups of cooperation projects can be improved without waiting for the pilot program to end. Especially since the Union’s budget has funds available for this,” he said.
According to Turchyn, it is also necessary to create a pipeline from scientific ideas to mass production.
“Today, the EAEU has research organizations, engineering schools, industrial enterprises and financial instruments. But a gap still exists between development and industrial implementation. Eurasian technology platforms should not be venues for discussion, but mechanisms for preparing specific products. Their results could include prototypes, new technologies, industrial orders or complete production chains,” he said.
The Belarusian prime minister proposed making artificial intelligence a tool for increasing productivity. The focus should shift to industrial pilot projects.
“It is important not to compete over the number of these projects. We need solutions that reduce production costs, cut downtime and make it possible to create new competitive products. Belarus has the necessary potential to take part in this work by combining the expertise of residents of the Hi-Tech Park, academic researchers and IT divisions of major industrial enterprises,” he said.
Turchyn also noted the need to further digitalize logistics within the EAEU and protect the EAEU’s domestic market.
“Over the past several years, interest in the EAEU market from third countries has been steadily growing. This is reflected in a gradual increase in supply volumes, which puts considerable competitive pressure on domestic producers. Various mechanisms are предусмотрены in a number of sectors to restrict imports of foreign goods if such imports pose significant risks to businesses in member states. However, countries often introduce unilateral non-tariff measures because introducing protective measures across all five member states is generally a longer and more complicated process. So perhaps we should move faster toward action by all five, rather than continuing to focus on the national level? Technical regulation measures are also an effective tool for protection. Here, the commission should bring all member states together and develop coordinated approaches to standardization, conformity assessment and quality control,” he said.