The Eurasian Intergovernmental Council approved the Regulation on selecting joint cooperation projects in industries and providing financial support for their implementation by the Eurasian Economic Union States.

The Regulation was elaborated in accordance with the instructions of the Heads of State and Government of the Eurasian Economic Union countries and is a fundamental document of the new program of financial support for industrial cooperation in the Union.

"This mechanism is a breakthrough event on the way of integration development of the manufacturing industry, as for the first time a supranational financial instrument is formed to promote cooperation in the real economy," emphasized Artak Kamalyan, EEC Minister in charge of Industry and Agriculture. "The program of financial support for industrial cooperation turns a new page in developing multilateral cooperation and will contribute to further technological development of our countries. The new mechanism is designed to encourage the fulfillment of the accumulated potential for developing and strengthening the industrial potential, and to guarantee access, including for small economies, to developing and implementing new technological solutions, which will create prerequisites required for ramping up their own production potential and developing integration processes in the Eurasian space as a whole". 

The adopted Regulation determines the procedure and criteria for selecting projects, requirements to borrowers and financial organizations, the application procedure for participating in the mechanism, control and responsibility of each party for implementing cooperation projects.

The criteria for selecting projects include the fulfillment of several basic conditions. A cooperative project may be considered if its participants are enterprises of three or more Union States. According to the Regulation, the project must be aimed at achieving one or more significant results, for example, creating a new enterprise or its modernization, forming a value-added chain, boosting exports, increasing trade or investment. And entrepreneurs must implement it within five years. 

When it comes to quantitative indicators of financial support, the parties have so far agreed on the following: the subsidy amount is equal to the key (accounting) rate (100% of the key rate) of the national currency in which the project is financed, while the maximum subsidy amount for one project per year cannot exceed the equivalent of 350 mln Russian rubles. The maximum rate of a bank participating in the mechanism should not exceed the level of the key rate increased by 6.5%. As and when cooperative projects are received, the Commission will create their lists twice a year and prioritize the initiatives received according to a points system.

"We hope that the program to support cooperative projects will be launched next year. About 1.8 bln Russian rubles have already been allocated for this purpose in the Union's budget, and we are waiting for interesting project proposals for the full-fledged launch of the mechanism," Artak Kamalyan explained.