DUSHANBE, June 10, 2009, Asia-Plus — Heads of government of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) member nations and Armenia have endorsed establishment of the EAEC anti-crisis fund.
The 23rd session of the EAEC Interstate Council at the level of prime ministers was held in Moscow on June 9. Russian media report that Russia’s Vice-Premier also Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin was appointed to head the EAEC Anti-crisis Fund.
According to Kudrin, the fund will start its work already this year after the sides ratify appropriate documents. The EAEC anti-crisis fund will provide sovereign and stabilization loans to its member nations as well as will fund interstate investment projects, the vice-premier said.
We will recall that Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia will pay to the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) Anti-crisis Fund 1 million U.S. dollars each. Such a decision was made at a meeting of the EAEC council for financial and economic policy in Moscow on May 20, 2009,
The authorized capital stock of the EAEC anti-crisis fund is planned to amount to 10 billion U.S. dollars. Russia will contribute $7.5 billion, Kazakhstan – $1 billion, and Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia – $1million each.
In the meantime, heads of government of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia yesterday made a decision in Moscow that the Customs Union will begin working starting from January 1, 2010 and a common customs area of these three countries will be established by July 2011, Russia media report. The Russian First Vice-Premier Igor Shuvalov noted that it could not be ruled out that Kyrgyzstan would join the Customs Union in the near future.
The initial concept of the Eurasian Economic Community was first proposed in October 2000, as a successor to the CIS Customs Union, when Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan signed a treaty on broad economic and trade cooperation. The organization was formally created with the ratification of that treaty in May 2001. The initial five-member group was further expanded in May 2002 when Moldova and Ukraine were granted observer status, and again in April 2003, when Armenia gained observer status. Uzbekistan joined the group in January 2006 but last year, it quitted the Community.
