Russian President Vladimir Putin calls on Eurasian Economic Union to go digital to expedite growth

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has called on the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) to work over the development of digital economy to help expedite the Union’s growth.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for the development of the whole digital economy of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) that Moscow has created to stand in the face of rival blocs – most importantly the European Union. 

Kremlin in a statement quoted Putin as telling the heads of EEU member states in a statement that the Union had already reached a significant level of growth but still needed to acquire internet-based facilities to move faster. 

“We assume it is necessary to accelerate implementation of the whole ‘digital agenda’ of the union, and to coordinate efforts on development of the ‘internet economy,’ creation of general digital trade rules, equal standards of exchange, and protection of information,” he said in the statement.

The EEU is an economic union of former Soviet states including Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia and Russia which leads it. The Union is meant to guarantee free transit of goods, services, capital and workers among member states.

The bloc which began functioning on 1 January 2015 is being considered as a major economic force to challenge the might of the European Union and the US.

Putin further in his statement called for the enactment of high technologies in public administration, industry, customs regulation systems and other areas, as well as “launching joint competitive, innovative and knowledge-intensive industries.”

He also emphasized that the EEU still needed to continue working jointly with integration partners to remove the remaining barriers, limitations and restrictions in the way of building a common economic space.

“Our task is to intensify efforts towards creating single markets for goods and services, and providing conditions for free capital and workforce flow,” Putin was quoted as saying in a report by the website of the Russian television channel Russia Today.

Putin further added that it was necessary to involve the business sector in integration initiatives, including both big, small and mid-sized enterprises.

He also emphasized that such areas as nuclear energy, renewable energy sources, ecology, medicine, space, tourism and sports provided great opportunities for boosting ties between EEU member states, RT.com added in its report.