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ESCAP Experts Highly Appreciated Commission's Efforts to Promote SDGs and Green Economy Principles in EAEU
The economy of the Eurasian Economic Union shows steady growth driven by domestic demand, public investment and active reconfiguration of regional trade. This was stated by Askar Japparkulov, Director of the Macroeconomic Policy Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission, at the 8th North and Central Asia Multilateral Forum on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Almaty on October 9.
In particular, at the session dedicated to SDG 8 "Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all" Askar Japparkulov noted that in 2023 the EAEU's GDP grew by 3.8%, surpassing the growth rate of the global economy. This year, the pace of economic development is even higher — as of the end of the half-year, the Union's GDP grew by 4.6%.
The Commission's representative emphasized that one of the tools for achieving sustainable growth of the Union countries is the green transformation of the EAEU. In this context, an important document developed by the EEC is the Concept for Implementing Green Economy Principles in the Union. The preparation of this document is a concrete step towards leveraging the integration potential to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.
"The concept offers a unified approach to developing a green economy that promotes mutual recognition of national environmental regulatory systems. This, in turn, will allow avoiding the so-called "climate barriers", i. e. restrictive measures introduced on environmental or climatic grounds," summarized Askar Japparkulov.
ESCAP representatives noted that the North and Central Asian region face significant challenges in achieving the SDGs by 2030. At the same time, progress is being made on some SDGs, including those that correlate with the goals of the EAEU's operations, such as SDG 8 and SDG 17. The Union countries are performing well on them. For instance, Armenia is among the leaders in terms of regional GDP growth rates. As for SDG 17, all Union states improved their statistical capacity to monitor the achievement of the SDGs. That confirms the proposition that Eurasian integration accelerates the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by the EAEU states.
The 8th Forum organized by the ESCAP Subregional Office was attended by representatives of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Eurasian Development Bank, International Labor Organization, FAO, UNICEF, World Health Organization, as well as delegations from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
