In a few hours an official ceremony of opening the borders which separate Kyrgyzstan from the Eurasian Economic Union will take place on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev and Almazbek Atambayev will watch the ceremony online from the Issyk Kul residence. Habar reports that the main event will take place at the Kordai Passage; then the leaders of the two countries will hold a press conference and share their views on economic cooperation within the EAEU. The length of the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border is 1050 km. Today is the last day of operation of seven customs points – six automobile points and one railway point. Now there will be no customs declarations.
Kyrgyzstan puts high hopes on the EAEU, hoping for legalization of labor migration, increasing pensions and benefits, and economic growth, for sure. However, not only Bishkek is expecting a lot from the EAEU. The growing economic globalization makes countries create united rules of regulation of economic relations.
Sergey Grinyaev, Director General of the Center for Strategic Assessments and Projections, says that today “thanks to the development of telecommunications, thanks to the development of transport, other technologies, today virtually any country is linked with any other. Material and virtual flows have become supermobile. Today, there are virtually no national boundaries. They slightly prevent the movement of migratory, financial, and information flows. But still, centers of attraction of various flows appear, they cause accumulation of certain resources. It is no coincidence that financial flows are accumulated in London or New York. It is no coincidence that migration flows are accumulated in other places. China is the point of departure of flows of manufactured goods.”
“Why can we call London a financial center, and why can we still not call Russia or Moscow a financial center, although a few years ago this phrase was very trendy and interesting?” the expert asks. According to him, the process of Eurasian integration can serve as a source for Russia, which will cause a convergence of many flows, and create conditions for the birth of Russia's first regional and then global financial center.
“Look at the map of the Eurasia of the 21st century,” Grinyaev says. “In fact, it is the intersection of global flows. The 21st century is the century of Asia. Today, China is actually a global world factory, which has practically filled the world with products. And all of these products are coming from China, from Asia to Europe, the global market. Look at what we have on the part of the highways. First of all, there is the project of the Great Silk Road, which is now being implemented at a national level in the People's Republic of China. After 10-20 years, we will be able to say that the Northern Sea Route is becoming an economically effective transport artery.”
The expert believes that “with the return of Crimea to the Russian Federation, an opportunity has appeared to redirect some transport flows not only to the markets of Western Europe, but to the markets of the Middle East, North Africa via the Black Sea straits, etc. Today, in fact, in Eurasian area, the center of which is the Russian Federation, conditions for the emergence of a new center have been created, for a geopolitical center of power, so to speak, the conditions for which are formed because of the presence of multiple transport flows. And if today, within the framework of Eurasian integration, Russia will be able to coordinate the flows that pass through Eurasia, migration flows, and financial and trade flows, I believe that this is precisely what will be the condition for, first of all, the stabilization of the internal situation in the Russian Federation. The definition of its role and place in the 21st century. And actually will serve as the basis for the emergence and strengthening of our country, as I said, at first as a regional and then as a global financial center.”
