ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
 Saturday


Expert: It is time to transfer economic cooperation in the EAEU from
the supply of agricultural products to high-tech industries

Yerevan December 23

Tatevik Shagunyan. If we compare the values of positive attitudes in
the society of Armenia to the Eurasian Economic Union with the level
of private money transfers from Russia to Armenia, it is obvious that
private transfers are very powerful, directly and quickly a factor
that determines these attitudes. This opinion was expressed at the
conference "Three years of the EAEU: achievements and prospects" at
the annual meeting of the Eurasian Expert Club, Candidate of
Sociological Sciences, Deputy Executive Director of the Noravank
Foundation, member of the Eurasian Expert Club Samvel Manukyan.

He noted that in 2012 money transfers from Russia to Armenia amounted
1.64 billion USD, and in 2013 - 1.73 billion. "The growth of this
indicator by 100 million, or 5%, led to an increase in positive
attitudes by 6%," the expert explained. Meanwhile, against the
background of sanctions against Russia in 2014, remittances from
Russia to Armenia decreased to $ 1.55 billion (by 10%), in 2015 to
1.01 billion (by 35%), and in 2016 to $ 0.9 billion (another 11%).

"When Russia's economy adapted to economic sanctions in 2017, it began
to grow and the growth of remittances from Russia to Armenia in the
period Jan-Oct 2017, compared to the same period of 2016, was 16%. As
we have already noted, the level of positive attitudes towards the
EAEU in 2017 increased by 4%," he said. As the expert noted,
calculations based on the mathematical model show that the growth of
private cash transfers from Russia to Armenia by $ 100 million, on
average, increases the positive attitude towards the EAEU by
approximately 0.5%. On the other hand, he said, even if remittances
from Russia to Armenia are reduced to zero, approximately 40% of the
population will positively regard the EAEU.

According to him, today the task of integrating high-tech industries,
as well as scientific and technological research in the EAEU,
including between Armenia and Russia, is extremely urgent.

"These works are determined by two factors: the first factor is the
ideas existing in the Armenian society that Russia is preferable to
partnering for the development of industry than the EU, and for the
development of science, EU is preferable to Russia. It is known that
today industry, high technologies and science are inseparably linked,
that is, there are no longer any production worthy of implementation,
without high technologies, therefore, Russia's advantage as a partner
of industrial integration will gradually melt," the expert explained.
The second factor, he said, is a derivative of the global competition
of large economic spaces with the goal of achieving a primacy in a new
economic order based on fundamentally new technologies.

Therefore, Manukyan summed up, it is time to immediately begin to
transfer economic cooperation within the frame of the EAEU from the
supply of agricultural products, wine and vodka products and gas and
oil products, to the sphere of high-technology production, development
of technologies and scientific research.

The conference is organized by the research and analytical public
organization "Integration and Development" and the scientific and
educational fund "Noravank".