Ambassador: Kazakhstan has had a lot of discussion with Armenia on  the creation of joint cooperation within the EAEU

ArmInfo.Kazakhstan has had a lot of discussion with Armenia on the creation of joint cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union.  Ambassador of  Kazakhstan to Armenia Timur Urazaev stated this in an interview with  ArmInfo correspondent.

"We talked a lot about this, and we offer these schemes to the  business community in Armenia and Kazakhstan. Well, firstly, the  simplest thing that lies on the surface is the creation of production  facilities in Armenia with the possibility of using the GSP + system  mode - for Europe, and GSP for America and Canada. Kazakhstan has  exactly the same system for production and export to the EU and the  USA. And you can use the potentials of not even all the territories  of our countries, but only special economic zones - the Armenian  Syunik and Kazakhstan Khorgos, where can be organized to call for  joint production and to produce and send all several thousand  commodity items falling under these systems, "the diplomat said.

The ambassador recalled that Kazakhstan's Khorgos, for example, opens  up opportunities for entering the huge Chinese market. According to  him, a similar situation is in Armenia, and goods through the Meghri  FTA can be sent to Europe, America, or to Iran with 80 million  markets.

"But, these are our wishes and recommendations of the governments of  Kazakhstan and Armenia, but the business community should take on  practical matters. We can only give recommendations, and states and  governments do everything to ease the regulatory conditions, and  business, as they say, must earn money for itself profit and win your  piece of the market, " Urazaev said.

At the same time, referring to the possibilities of expanding the  economic cooperation between the two countries and the implementation  of new projects, the diplomat noted that he could not yet name  specific projects. He recalled that in the territory of Kazakhstan  more than 200 operating joint ventures, in the territory of Armenia,  Kazakhstani investors are usually represented as minority  participants in various enterprises. And according to updated data  from 2003 to 2019, about 56 million US dollars were invested by  Kazakhstani investors in various projects in Armenia. "While all this  remains at the same level as I know. But, there are no new projects  to boast of. Now is the beginning of the year, and there is only a  certain exchange of information on the possibilities of a trade  export-import line of goods. I expect that in 2020 some new niches  will appear in our trade turnover and in our markets, and some,  albeit insignificant decline recorded in 2019 will be overcome>, -  the ambassador of Kazakhstan summed up.

It should be noted that the volume of foreign trade of Armenia with  the EAEU countries increased over the 11 months of 2019 by 12.8% per  annum to $ 2.05 billion, while with the EU countries, on the  contrary, it decreased by 7.6% to $ 1.6 billion, while a year earlier  In both directions, growth was recorded - by 13.6% and 22.6%,  respectively. Moreover, the export of Armenian goods to the EAEU  countries slowed down growth from 20.5% to 10.7%, amounting to $  694.7 million, while import growth accelerated from 10.3% to 13.9% to  $ 1.4 billion, while with countries The EU and exports and imports  fell into decline - by 14.2% and 3.5%, respectively, to $ 549.4  million and $ 1.01 billion, compared with 11.3% and 30.8% a year  earlier.  Among the EAEU countries in terms of foreign trade, Belarus  is followed by Russia - $ 60.1 million (y-o-y growth accelerated from  14.8% to 28.7%), Kazakhstan - $ 7.4 million (reversal from 48.1%  growth by 37.4% recession) and Kyrgyzstan - $ 3.2 million (a way out  of the 43.7% decline in growth by 3.3 fold).  Export of Armenian  goods to Belarus slowed down growth from 81% to 33.7%, while import  growth jumped from 2.8% to 27%. Exports of goods to Kazakhstan turned  the dynamics from a 2-fold increase to a 45.4% decline, while the  import continued to decline with a slowdown from 16.8% to 14.4%. In  the direction of Kyrgyzstan, exports left the 57.2% decline for a  4.2-fold increase, while the dynamics of imports, on the contrary,  turned from a 14.7-fold increase to a 33.4% decline.