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According to Mikhail Myasnikovich, the EAEU economy is functioning under unprecedented sanction pressure. This situation calls for new economic relations between national companies and the state authorities of the EAEU countries.

"We need a better import substitution and industrial cooperation system. The industrialization map might serve as a guide. Today, it includes 158 projects amounting to 273 bln US dollars," said Mikhail Myasnikovich. "It is required to identify front-and-center projects and programs. The priority should be business projects having a cooperation component and a required level of national competencies."

 Andrey Zhulin, Vice Rector of National Research University "Higher School of Economics" and Director of the Institute for Public Administration and Governance, presented his research on prospects for establishing Eurasian companies within the EAEU legal framework. Earlier EAEU heads of governments instructed to examine that matter at the Intergovernmental Council meeting.

"The key goal of establishing Eurasian companies is to support industrial cooperation among the EAEU states in manufacturing industries. Essentially, it is about the legal status of companies and the main effect that they will get is elimination of regulatory discrimination and unnecessary costs in cooperation projects," emphasized Andrey Zhulin.

Cost savings are expected to be ensured through further expanding the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor compared to the basic legal regime in the EAEU. Notably, it is proposed to use such tools as the possibility of cross-border company relocation and, consequently, a more liberal regime for movement of its assets and factors of production, liberal corporate regulation and lifting fiscal constraints.

The meeting participants voiced their proposals on further work in this direction. Alexander Shokhin, President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and Member of the Presidium of the EAEU Business Council, pointed out the need to identify relevant industries and activities. 

"The talk should not be about establishing companies but about the status of existing supranational companies," noted Alexander Shokhin.

Nikolay Kushnarev, Director of the EEC Industrial Policy Department, informed the meeting participants on working out the financing mechanisms for industrial cooperation projects in the EAEU. 

"This matter was raised by the businesses that are interested in the work towards lowering the cost of funds for industrial cooperation. It is proposed to employ subsidizing of loan interest rates, which is a global practice of industry support," noted Nikolay Kushnarev.

According to Mikhail Myasnikovich, the EEC Council endorsed the Commission's initiatives on financing mechanisms. Practical implementation of the proposals will require to invest the Commission with relevant powers, as well as to develop further regulatory acts describing implementation mechanisms and tools.

The Advisory Council members discussed prospects for recovering logistics chains. This will be facilitated by a common system for customs transit.

"The Commission is actively working in this direction, too. The Draft Agreement on the common system for customs transit is being prepared according to the 5+ model. In the future it is to become one of the three components of the transport and logistics megaproject that we discussed with SCO Secretary-General during the Samarkand Summit. It will encompass development of specific international transport corridors, their digitalization based on the ecosystem being designed by the Commission and customs transit involving the use of navigation seals," stated Mikhail Myasnikovich.

In his turn, Danil Ibraev, President of the Kyrgyz Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and Member of the Presidium of the EAEU Business Council, noted that in addition to drawing up the register of transport and logistics projects it was necessary to move on to specific implementation issues. 

"We need to understand where bottlenecks are to eliminate them and make the transport corridors as efficient as possible," said Danil Ibraev. He also articulated proposals on using the potential of electric transport in cargo shipping.

Special attention was paid to improving interaction between the EEC and the business community of the EAEU countries. As was highlighted by Bakytzhan Sagintaev, EEC Minister in charge of Economy and Financial Policy, until the present that work had been carried out by the Commission's Units in a rather siloed way; as a result, the same matters had been discussed several times.

"We need a systematic approach, a reboot of this work. From now on, the 'single window' for the Commission's interaction with the EAEU Business Council will be the EEC Business Development Department. Moreover, each country will be assigned a special employee," noted Bakytzhan Sagintaev.

He also called upon the EAEU Business Council to intensify the efforts on shaping the consolidated positions of business communities and presenting them to the Commission as part of conducting regulatory impact assessment for the Commission's draft decisions and, in the future, of assessing actual impact of the Commission's current decisions.

Moreover, the meeting participants discussed the progress of the 2025 Strategy and proposals by businesses for its implementation plan, the matters of promoting cooperation with the business communities of third countries, as well as the Commission's groundwork for establishing the common commodity exchange market in the EAEU. According to Sergei Glazyev, EEC Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics, now the need to create the common exchange space of the EAEU is especially evident.

"The first imitation bids for rapeseed oil on the Belarusian Commodity Exchange were successful and today the Russian party proposes to start trading two commodities in the common exchange market as early as this year. We believe that it is entirely possible," said Sergei Glazyev.

Irina Narkevich, Deputy Chairperson of the Board of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange, added that the EAEU exchanges worked closely with each other. 

"We support the proposal by the Russian party on establishing an exchange committee to manage the common commodity exchange market," noted Irina Narkevich.

Representatives of the EAEU Business Council made many proposals on customs transit issues and establishing Eurasian transport corridors, developing EAEU information resources, implementing youth initiatives, etc.