Chairman of the BelCCI takes part in the events of the Eurasian Economic Forum 2024

Chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mikhael Miatlikov is taking part in the events of the Eurasian Economic Forum 2024, which is taking place in Yerevan.

This year’s forum is dedicated to the main theme "10 Years of the EAEU: Prospects and Priorities". The Forum is aimed at the participation of heads of large, medium and small businesses of the member states and third countries, heads and representatives of state authorities of the EAEU countries, as well as heads and members of governments, representatives of international, scientific and educational organizations interested in developing interaction within the Union.

The Forum's business program includes about 30 events. The main topics are the most relevant and demanded issues of integration processes in the EAEU.

In his speech at the session "Industrial Cooperation in the EAEU: Business Ideas and Support Mechanisms", the Chairman of the BelCCI emphasized the importance and relevance of the issues raised within the framework of the session: "Business ideas and support mechanisms are a particularly relevant topic in the current realities. In modern conditions, there is a serious reorientation of export-import flows. It is important that the vacated niches are replaced by internal cooperation, it is important to concentrate on the closest friendly partners and develop real, technological cooperation, create joint platforms and invest in them".

In this regard, the Chairman of the BelCCI proposed to discuss the improvement of support mechanisms for cooperation projects within the EAEU, focusing on those projects in which the BelCCI is directly involved. "One of them, the most relevant, is the mechanism of financial assistance to joint cooperation projects. The Chambers of the EAEU countries have created a Project Office to support cooperation projects. The BelCCI, for its part, has carried out substantive work with the main industrial sectors, in fact – individual consultations "in manual mode" with hundreds of enterprises", the head of the BelCCI informed.

At the same time, according to Mikhael Miatlikov, business initiative in this area is poor, for which there are both subjective and objective reasons. "Business, in my opinion, will not be so active further if the costs of inclusion in the register, recognition of a project as cooperative or a product as jointly produced will be significantly greater than what the enterprise can count on as a result. And each mechanism individually is not perceived as the main motivator for the start of cooperation," the Chairman of the BelCCI noted.

In this regard, as a business idea, he proposed to discuss the symbiosis of various support mechanisms with the formation of a broad list of benefits of cooperation, and encouraged businesses to send their proposals to improve cooperation mechanisms.

On the sidelines of the Forum, the Chairman of the BelCCI also took part in the work of the Public Reception Room of the Competition and Antimonopoly Regulation Block – an open platform for direct dialog with the EAEU business community, where activities in the field of competition in the EAEU cross-border markets are presented, and problematic business issues and solutions are discussed. In particular, the BelCCI proposed to analyze the process of inclusion in the register of industrial products. The issue of indirect taxes collection and improving the efficiency of the mechanism of control over indirect taxes payment in the EAEU was also raised, which is of interest to Belarusian export-oriented business.

Another event of the first day of the Eurasian Economic Forum, in which representatives of the BelCCI took part, was the Business Dialogue "EAEU – Cuba".

The Republic of Cuba is a traditional trade and economic partner of the EAEU in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Cooperation has deep roots that connect the country with the member states of the Union economically and culturally. At the same time, its potential is still far from being fulfilled.

Within the framework of the Business Dialogue, the spheres that have the greatest potential for deepening trade and economic cooperation between the EAEU countries and Cuba, the existing difficulties in the transport and logistics sphere and possible ways to solve them, the prospects for opening production capacities of the Union countries in Cuba, including the special development zone "Mariel", financial issues of bilateral cooperation, prospects in Cuba for business and investors of the EAEU countries in the field of tourism and other issues were considered.

In addition, on the sidelines of the forum, a meeting was held between the Chairman of the BelCCI and the President of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, Mahmoud Najaf Arab, at which promising areas for further inter-chamber cooperation, opportunities for holding joint events for business, exchange of visits, participation in exhibitions and fairs were considered.