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SPIEF-2019: EAEU-ASEAN business dialogue

08 june 2019

On June 8, 2019 Russia-ASEAN Business Council, the Roscongress Foundation and the Eurasian Economic Commission conducted the EAEU-ASEAN business dialogue within the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019. The business dialogue was attended by over 100 representatives of government bodies and business circles of the ASEAN and EAEU member states, including the heads of major Russian companies. During the business dialogue, the participants discussed the prospects for the development of mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment cooperation between the EAEU and ASEAN, and bilateral cooperation projects were presented. Ms. Tatyana Valovaya, member of the Board (Minister) for Macroeconomics and Integration of the Eurasian Economic Commission was the moderator of the business dialogue. Ivan Polyakov, Chairman of the ASEAN-Russia Business Council, noted in his speech that the largest companies from Thailand and Vietnam are already implementing investment projects in Russia in the field of agriculture and the food industry. He said that the Business Council has now prepared proposals for the national project “International Cooperation and Export,” which are aimed at creating strategic partnership territories in ASEAN countries. “The format of working groups within the framework of memorandums signed by the Eurasian Economic Commission with Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia are very effective. The formalization of interaction sets a certain impetus and helps to inform business representatives more deeply about the possibilities of work in the partner markets,”said Ms. Tatyana Valovaya, member of the Board (Minister) for Macroeconomics and Integration of the Eurasian Economic Commission. The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Ms. Armida Salia Alishahbana in her report highlighted the urgent tasks of developing trade between the regions: the need to expand investment, diversify the structure of trade and geographical distribution. Mr. Munir Majid, President of ASEAN Business Club, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad called for the development of a communication strategy between the entrepreneurs of the two integration associations, which would allow to learn more about each other's capabilities. He praised the possibility of EAEU cooperation with the ASEAN countries in the field of the digital economy: the use of financial technologies, cybersecurity systems in managing the investment portfolio. The Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Hoang Quoc Vuong, said that the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the EAEU led to a dynamic increase in trade turnover from 2016 to 2018, which in 2018 exceeded $ 6 billion. Kamrang Tekret, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Trade of the Kingdom of Cambodia empathized within the business dialogue that Cambodia is interested in importing Russian machinery and is ready to export agricultural products and footwear to the EAEU countries. The Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Philippines (Carlos Soretta), Indonesia (Wahid Supriyadi) and Myanmar (Ko Ko Shane) informed the participants of the business dialogue about the investment potential of their countries and about promising areas of cooperation. Representatives of business also spoke about the positive effects of interaction with ASEAN countries, in particular, Fedor Domotenko, CEO of Minsk Tractor Plant OJSC (Republic of Belarus) and Andrey Anikin, CEO of Angstrem JSC (Russia).