ArmInfo. Industrial cooperation projects may only be launched after the start of the new funding format. Answering the question of ArmInfo news agency about the lack of projects on industrial cooperation in the EAEU, Iya Malkina, Assistant to the Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Board, said during a briefing following the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council. In this vein, she noted that the projects may be launched no earlier than 2024.
In general, according to Malkina, the work is only at the very beginning. As part of the formation of industrial cooperation projects, according to her, work with the Member States is carried out only in the direction of developing qualification requirements and conditions under which the project will be taken under the tutelage of the Commission of the Union, and, accordingly, concessional financing will be provided.
At the same time, she highly appreciated the potential of the Republic of Armenia in the manufacturing industry, noting that the Armenian side has a large number of interesting proposals in the context of the implementation of joint projects. However, it will be possible to speak more specifically about these proposals only in the summer of this year within the framework of the next meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council and the Eurasian Exhibition. Concerning the latter, Malkina added that not only enterprises participating in joint projects will be presented within the framework of the exhibition, but specific agreements will also be announced. In December 2022, the EAEU adopted a new format for financing industrial cooperation projects, which provides for subsidizing interest rates on loans and credits issued for the implementation of the latter from the budget of the Union. The mechanism is designed for five years with the possibility of extension.
According to preliminary calculations, a fund in the amount of about 20 million US dollars per year will be formed. This will make it possible to support projects worth about 16-17 billion Russian rubles annually.
