Izvestia: "Customs Union to compete with the EU"
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his counterparts Mikhail Myasnikovich of Belarus and Karim Massimov of Kazakhstan spoke before the major private companies of their countries. They explained to big business what benefits it will derive from the Customs Union (CU) and the Common Economic Space (CES).
The CU business forum took place in the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Hotel in central Moscow. Putin thanked the Kazakh side for the wonderful reception. Not everyone understood what he meant until he explained that the Ritz was owned by the Kazakh company Verny Kapital, which bought the hotel for $700 million not long ago. Massimov appreciated the symbolism and suggested that the next forum be held in a Russian-owned hotel in Astana.
"Before it was dangerous to vie with the state here but now business is making such attempts," Putin said. "We are not just listening to you; we hear you and will resolve problems."
To begin with, Putin promised to reign in bureaucrats, because now that the barriers at the borders have been removed it is time for the three countries to compete for private capital. He explained that now every company will choose the state with the best conditions for business.
"Nobody wants the national bureaucracy to be replaced with a supranational one. We do not need additional pressure from supranational bodies, which is the case in some nearby integration associations. But let's not point fingers," Putin said, hinting at the situation in the European Union.
The EU was mentioned at the forum more than once. Putin is convinced that the union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will soon be able to compete with the EU, although the CU has been in effect for a couple of weeks – since July 1, when the internal borders were opened. Putin is confident the CU will soon become a new pole of the global economy. The CU Commission is already holding talks with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and will soon open a dialogue with the EU.
Putin said the formation of the trilateral union is a natural step and has become the first real economic union since the Soviet Union's collapse. The ties between the countries are so close, in fact, that each prime minister set out to prove that his compatriots have the best attitude toward their neighbours. Massimov recalled his visit to the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing grounds as an example of the friendship between the nations.
"I went to a mine at Semipalatinsk and saw a Russian sitting there," Massimov said.
"And is he still sitting there?" Putin could not help interrupting him. "As the joke goes – the war is over but nobody told him."
"He's been working there for 40 years," Massimov replied.
Business people did not have many questions for the prime ministers. Head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin explained why. "The legal foundation was created so fast that business could not keep up with the government," he said. "This is why government officials were criticised for not involving entrepreneurs in the drafting of these documents. However, it turned out that everything happened so fast that business people simply didn't have time to prepare proposals and submit them to the government."
Anastasia Novikova
