DUSHANBE, September 26, 2012, Asia-Plus — A roundtable to discuss prospects of Tajikistan’s joining the Customs Union has taken place at the National Library of Tajikistan in Dushanbe today.
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Institute of Demography, Migration and Regional Development Yuri Krupnov has presented his own plan of raising the economy of Tajikistan at the meeting.
The main objective of the meeting was in discussing the current state and prospects of further expansion of economic ties between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation and ways to give a new impulse to further development of integration processes within the framework of the Customs Union.
Organized by Russia’s Non-profit Development Foundation “Institute for Eurasian Studies” and the Institute of Economics and Demography of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, the meeting has brought together representatives from Russian President’s Office, Tajik President’s Executive Office, the State Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament), the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) as well as representatives from Tajik and Russian executive authorities, experts and journalists.
The meeting has discussed the current events and situations in Russia and Tajikistan and positions regarding possible cooperation as the basis for further detailed discussions and actions.
Representatives from the Russian Development Foundation “Institute for Eurasian Studies” believe that the roundtable will promote intensification of integration processes between Tajikistan and the Russian Federation as well as between Tajikistan and other member nations of the Customs Union and will give a new impulse to further expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation and will become an efficient means of achieving stability and raising living conditions.
Specialists from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) of Tajikistan note that Tajikistan’s joining the Customs Union will become “a significant step towards further integration of economic ties with Russia and other member nations of the Customs Union.”
“Joining the Customs Union will ensure duty-free access of Tajik commodities to markets of member nations of the Customs Union and enough import of oil products, lumber, grains, and other basic goods into Tajikistan,” the MoEDT specialists noted.
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Institute of Demography, Migration and Regional Development Yuri Krupnov has presented his own plan of raising the economy of Tajikistan at the meeting.
The report is the author’s vision of the future of the post-Soviet area “as a new single big country that has not existed before and of that Eurasian integration revolution that will be conducted by all interested peoples and countries.”
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia introduced the single economic space on January 1, 2012. The Customs Union between Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia came into existence on January 1, 2010. Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia removed all customs borders between each other after July 2011. It is separate from the Eurasian Union. Since 1, 2012, the three states have created the single economic space.
Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus have launched a customs union as a first step towards forming a broader EU-type economic alliance of former Soviet states.
On November 19, 2011, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia put together a joint commission on fostering closer economic ties, planning to create a Eurasian Union by 2015.
In October 2011, the acting prime minister of Kyrgyzstan announced that the country will join the Customs Union, and that the process was agreed with the prime-ministers of the other member states.
Leaders of Tajikistan also voiced their interest in potentially joining the union. But Tajikistan may join the union only when Kyrgyzstan joins it because the Customs Union member nations must have common border.
