DUSHANBE, March 12, 2009, Asia-Plus — Kazakh president’s suggestion to introduce a single currency for member nations of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) could promote improvement of financial situation within the Community area, member of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Committee on Economy, Budget, Finance and Taxes, Ismoil Talbakov, told Asia-Plus today.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev yesterday proposed that the EAEC countries introduce its own currency. According to Interfax-Kazakhstan, speaking at the second Astana economic forum entitled “Economic Security in Eurasia in the System of Global Risks, Nazarbayev noted on March 11 that a single interstate supranational cashless currency can be introduced inside the Community. According to him, the currency could be called Euras or Eurasia.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Ismoil Talbakov noted that the main reason for the global financial crisis was a collapse of USD, “which has been used as global currency over the past nearly 30 years.”
According to him, to come out of this economic depression the Community should introduce it own currency. “Appearance of any new global currency in the coming years is unlikely, while introduction of regional currency is a logical move. I think that along with common model laws and border each alliance of states should also have the single currency like the European Union for example” MP said, expressing confidence that introduction of the single currency would be of benefit to all member nations of the Eurasian Economic Community, including Tajikistan.
In the meantime, Bahodur Safarov, researcher at the Institute for Economic Studies within the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT), considers that introduction of the single currency for the EAEC countries is still unrealistic.
“Economic development levels of member nations of the Community differ from each other considerably,” said the expert, “Introduction of the single currency would serve purpose of poor countries of the region, while Russia will never go along with that, because it will lead to increase in flight of capital from the country.” Moreover, the EAEC member nations have not yet come to agreement on common customs procedures, and therefore, it is still premature to speak about introduction of the single regional currency in the coming years, Safarov said.
The Eurasian Economic Community currently groups Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
