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The Deputy Chairman of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) Denis Ilyin reports that an increase by 54% has been attained by the volume of cargo transported via the North-South International Transport Corridor (ITC) from January to May, 2023.
According to Ilyin, Russia-Georgia-Armenia-Iran direction is a possible interconnection between North-South and East-West transport corridors. He said that at a session on transport logistics in Eurasia, held within the frames of Eurasian Congress 2023 in Russian Sochi.
More than $38 billion are needed for implementation of 102 projects of the development of the North-South transport corridor. The state sources finance 67 of them.
Purchase of cars for the South Caucasus Railway in Armenia is a project of the North-South ITC, while construction of the Meghri-Kajaran road section is a project of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD).
The Republic of Armenia and the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) signed an agreement on the provision of an investment loan from the Anti-Crisis Fund of the Eurasian Economic Community to finance the construction of the north-south road corridor (Phase 4) on April 14, 2015. The investment loan amounted to $150 million is provided for a period of 20 years.
The Eurasian landmass along East–West and North–South axes are being crossed by a system of international transport corridors called the Eurasian Transport Network. The Eurasian transport corridors enable the network to become a tangible foundation for a Greater Eurasia because they extend as far as China, India and the European Union. Digitalizing transport can provide seamless transport connectivity and unlock the full potential of the Eurasian continent’s economy.

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The government program implementation report shows that positive trends in the direction of economic growth continued in 2023, and, as it was preliminarily estimated, the average rate of economic growth in the first quarter of 2023 was 7.2%.
The document additionally reports an increase in employment and a decrease in the unemployment rates in 2022 and the continuation of export growth trend in the period of January-April 2023.
According to the report, in spite of all significant economic challenges, affecting economic policy and requiring an adequate response, economic stability of Georgia was maintained, and a double-digit economic growth was recorded in 2022 (10.1%).
The average rate of economic growth in the first quarter of 2023 was preliminarily estimated to reach 7.2%. A positive effect on the labor market indicators was produced by the increase in economic activity. Particularly, in 2022, employment rate increased and unemployment rate decreased. An all-time low was reached by poverty rate in 2022. In 2022, exports showed an increase by 31.8 percent and reached a record high rate – 5.6 billion USD and continued the trend in the period of January-April 2023. Exports increase reached 23.6%, compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, and equaled 1,962.2 million US dollars.
Direct foreign investment – the volume of direct foreign investment, increased significantly in 2022 (by 61.1%), compared to the previous year, and amounted to a record 2 billion USD. The decrease of the annual inflation level in April 2023 (2.7%) was more than they had expected and even lower than the target index set by the National Bank – 3%.
The government took significant steps to improve its debt management policy and ensure transparency between June 2022 and May 2023.
The Prime Minister has already submitted his annual report on the implementation of the government program to the Parliament. The period from June 2022 to May 2023 was covered by the report. The report will be presented to the Parliament by the Prime Minister of Georgia on June 30.

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A memorandum of cooperation on matters related to the China International Import Expo (CIIE) was signed by Dutch and Chinese business representatives from the CIIE Bureau and Dutch institutions and enterprises on May, 25 in Xinhua during a promotional event for the sixth CIIE, scheduled for Shanghai from Nov. 5 to Nov. 10.
A keynote speech emphasizing China’s position as the world’s second-largest import market was delivered by Jin Yuan, Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Chinese Embassy to the Netherlands.
According to him, China’s import volume, reaching 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, showed the country’s immense market potential.
He added that an excellent platform for large and small Dutch enterprises to showcase and promote their products was provided by the CIIE, the world’s first import expo held at a national level.
An active role in the expo should be taken by Dutch businesses. Jin called them to explore potential collaborations with their Chinese counterparts and reap the significant benefits of the Chinese market.
According to Shi Huangjun, vice president of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), Dutch companies have always been important players at the CIIE due to their enthusiastic participation and considerable benefits they have achieved.
Not only large multinational corporations but also a multitude of innovative and potentially high-growth small- and medium-sized enterprises from the Netherlands were attracted by the expo.
A screening of a promotional video for the sixth CIIE was included in the event. Information on the expo’s preparations and detailed insights were shared by organizers into the exhibition areas. Various inquiries raised by Dutch representatives were also addressed by them.

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Today is the first day of Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement.
All Australians, including manufacturers, workers, farmers, tradies, innovators, families and students, get benefits from this gold standard trade deal.
Two-way goods trade worth $10 billion in 2022 and two-way services trade worth over $11 billion in 2021-22 make the United Kingdom one of Australia’s major trading partners and its second largest services trading partner.
The UK will let over 99 per cent of Australian products enter duty free, including some of key exports, such as wine, short and medium grain rice, sugar, honey, nuts, olive oil and food supplements.
They eliminated UK tariffs on Australian industrial goods, such as auto parts, electrical equipment and fashion items. Duty free transitional quotas with eventual elimination of all tariffs will be introduced for Australian agricultural products, including beef and sheep meat, sugar and dairy products.
They also eliminated tariffs on 98 per cent of UK imports to Australia for Australian consumers, with the remainder removed within six years.
The UK – Australia people-to-people links are strengthened by this agreement. The same access to the UK job market as nationals from the European Union, except the Republic of Ireland, is now granted to Australian professionals.
Measures designed to improve the mobility of skilled workers and young people in both directions are also included in the agreement. It will become possible from 31 January 2024 for Australians up to the age of 35, up from 30, to apply for working holidays in the UK and stay for a maximum of three years instead of two.
Not just exchange of products and services, but also the exchange of ideas is boosted by trade. The foundation for receiving royalties by Australian artists, including First Nations artists, when their original works of art are resold in the UK, is laid by this new trade agreement.
The trade turnover amounting to over $1 trillion in 2022 makes the UK Australia’s second largest source of investment. Further growth in two-way investment will be promoted with the help of modern investment provisions.
It is important to mention that the agreement doesn’t include an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. This preserves Australia’s sovereign right to develop and implement legitimate policy measures in areas such as public health and the environment.
Bringing this trade deal into force in record time is prioritised by the Albanese Labor Government legislation in the Parliament, with the aim of helping businesses diversify their trade and bring down the cost of living for Australians.
Assistance from Austrade can be got by Australian business looking to enter or expand into the UK market. The process of cutting the tariff under the agreement apply to their specific goods can also be checked by Business through DFAT’s FTA Portal and DFAT’s Guide to Using the A-UKFTA to export and import goods can be read by them.

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According to press service of the Ministry of Trade and Integration, measures to develop non-primary exports in Kazakhstan were spoken about by Vice-Minister of Trade and Integration Kairat Torebayev at the Central Communications Service.
He said that a record level of exports of processed products ($26.5 billion) was reached last year and this trend has continued this year.
An increase by 32% compared to the previous indicator of the same period last year was reached by the total volume of foreign trade in processed products in the first quarter of 2023 (totally $ 18.8 billion). An increase of 7.6% was shown by exports of non-primary goods for the same period (5.9 billion US dollars).
Export deliveries of a number of product names rose significantly last year: flour (70.8%), petroleum products (52.2%), passenger cars (46%), sunflower oil (19.9%) and fertilizers (2.8 times).
Kazakh finished products were sent to 106 countries of the world in Q1 2023, expanding the list of importing countries compared to the same period of the previous year, adding new markets, such as the Syrian Arab Republic, Senegal, North Macedonia, Somalia, Guinea, Cyprus.
Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Turkey, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Afghanistan are traditionally the main buyers of processed products from Kazakhstan.
The results of last year show that there are 650 active exporters of non-primary products in the country, which have been exporting for at least three years. Advantage of non-financial measures of state support, such as export acceleration programs, launching on marketplaces, participation in trade missions and reimbursement of part of the export costs, was taken by 463 enterprises.
The result in the form of a return on the invested budget money is shown by each measure. The Vice Minister of Trade and Integration cited data of the acceleration program at a briefing in the CCS that reports that the refund of one budget tenge amounted to 158 tenge, for withdrawal to marketplaces – 213 tenge, for service support measures – 652 tenge.
The Accelerator’s support made it possible to conclude 38 export contracts worth about 260 million US dollars last year. As of today, they have already signed 2 contracts for the supply of products to Uzbekistan for $19 million, 1 long-term contract for the supply of household chemicals to Russia for a total of $1.3 million (600 million a year) and 2 more contracts for the supply of copper products to the Chinese market for $5 million. The supply of Kazakhstani food products to South Korea is also a subject of negotiations.
Since the beginning of 2023, they have conducted 5 trade and economic missions through QazTrade in such countries as Vietnam (Hanoi), Azerbaijan (Baku), Iran (Tehran), China (Xi’an), Uzbekistan (Tashkent). These trade and economic missions made it possible to sign export contracts worth more than $300 million.
They will organize 5 more trade and economic missions by the end of the year. In addition, the presentation of the national stands of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the annual Shanghai Import Exhibition in Shanghai (China), the 8th EXPO China-Eurasia XUAR and others is planned.
An electronic trading platform Alibaba.com is another relevant tool for promoting goods to foreign markets. The total sales of 220 companies placed on the trading platform amounted to about 225 million US dollars in 2020-2022. This year, access to golden marketplace accounts will be provided to 70 companies.
They opened the National Pavilion on an electronic platform “JD.com as part of the recent visit of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the city of Xi’an. In addition, they completed the construction of the Ozon fulfillment center in Astana in March and registered 15 thousand Kazakhstani sellers at its site with their sales volume exceeding 10 billion tenge in 2022.
The reimbursement of part of the costs to exporters is one of the most popular measures of state support. The costs in the amount of 8.8 billion tenge were returned by the state by the end of 2022.
The share of small businesses (companies operating in the fields of food production and wholesale trade) among the recipients of funds was about 48%.
The Ministry of Trade and Integration reports that this support measure made the geography of exports add three countries (Cyprus, France and Japan) and the range of goods for which cost recovery is carried grow by 53 positions.
Companies can apply for cost recovery from April 21 to July 21 2023. It is planned to approve applications in the amount of about 10 billion tenge by the end of the year, and the number of enterprises that have used this support measure will be increased to three hundred.

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As Varos Simonyan, a Eurasian Economic Commission (executive arm of EEU) Minister for Internal Markets, Information and Communication Technologies, said in an interview with sb.by, putting the trusted third party service into commercial operation this year is the goal of building cross-border trust space across the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
He emphasized on the necessity of cross border trust space for implementation of legally relevant interstate electronic document management and development of information exchange in the EEU.
According to the minister, draft rules for the recognition of digital electronic signatures in electronic documents and ensuring the validity of electronic documents in cross-border information interaction of legal entities with state authorities of EEU member states has been developed by the EEC.
He also added that a trusted third party service will be used as a universal mechanism for the provision of interstate services in electronic form.
Data protection in cross-border information exchange in the current geopolitical conditions also got a special attention.
According to Simonyan, an active work is being done by the EEC and the countries to create a secure data transmission network and joint development of specialized cryptographic information protection tools.

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According to Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Armen Nurbekyan, Armenian economy growth continues at high rates.
As he said, presenting the annual report on the Central Bank’s activities at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on financial-credit and budgetary issues today, high external demand in the services sector, as well as by growth in the construction sector, largely facilitates this process.
Nurbekyan said that a significant increase in the number of foreign clients and financial flows in 2022 made the exchange rate of the Armenian national currency strengthen significantly in both nominal and real terms.
Nurbekyan highlighted that the rise in prices of imported goods starting from Q 3 2022 was substantially restrained by the Armenian dram’s strengthening, which manifested itself in parallel with growth in external demand.
The National Statistical Committee registered an increase by 12.2% of Armenia’s economic activity in January-March 2023 compared to January-March 2022.

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Various sectors of the economy has met New Zealand’s announcement of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United Kingdom with enthusiasm and anticipation. Economic ties are expected to be deepened and new avenues for trade to be opened between the two nations by the agreement that is set to take effect on May 31.
The NZ-UK FTA has been hailed by Export New Zealand, an organization representing exporters, as comprehensive and modern, with confidence in the strengthened economic relationship it will foster. The exceptional market access package achieved through the negotiations was highlighted by Josh Tan, Senior Policy Advisor at Export NZ.
According to him, 99.5 percent of current exports will enter the UK tariff-free, and the path will be cleared for 100 percent tariff elimination for NZ exporters by this agreement. He sees this development as a boon for British consumers who enjoy New Zealand products like sauvignon blanc and spring lamb. It will simultaneously benefit Kiwi exporters.
The positive impact of the FTA on bilateral trade was emphasized by Business NZ Chief Executive Kirk Hope. The amount of around six billion dollars annually was achieved by the two-way trade between New Zealand and the UK prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and experts expect the figure to rise with the implementation of the FTA.
A strong signal is sent to British investors by the agreement, affirming that New Zealand’s stability and transparency make it an attractive investment destination.
According to Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce, better access for Canterbury exporters to the UK market will be provided by the agreement. The benefits for primary sector and manufacturing businesses in the Canterbury region were also emphasized by Leeann Watson, CEO of the Chamber.
The reduction of export costs and levelling of the playing field, enhancing the competitiveness of New Zealand products in the UK market, are expected by FTA. A chapter in the agreement is dedicated to maximizing opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses, which are regarded as engines of growth in the local economy.
The early implementation of the FTA with the UK was welcomed by the horticulture industry, which has faced numerous challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gratitude to government officials for expediting the agreement, citing its potential to provide hope for the future and support industry growth, was expressed by Nadine Tunley, Chief Executive of Horticulture New Zealand.
The aim of increasing the industry’s value to $12 billion by 2035 unites the FTA and the Aotearoa Horticulture Action Plan. The elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, making the FTA’s early adoption a significant step toward achieving these goals are included in the plan.
The FTA was celebrated by the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ) due to its positive impact on the dairy sector. According to Kimberly Crewther, Executive Director of DCANZ, complete duty-free entry into the UK market by 2028 will be achieved due to the agreement, and New Zealand exporters will be able to compete with their European counterparts on an equal footing.
Substantial potential for New Zealand dairy products is held by the UK, the world’s second-largest dairy import market. Opportunities for increased trade and market share will be created by the elimination of tariffs on various dairy products, including liquid milk, yogurt, and infant formula.
Market dynamics and commercial demand will regulate the actual level of trade, while the FTA’s entry into force marks a significant milestone for New Zealand’s trade with the UK. Nonetheless, a valuable platform for building stronger relationships with UK dairy customers and expanding export options for New Zealand’s dairy industry is provided by the agreement.
As this new chapter of free trade cooperation is embarked on by New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the mutual benefits and strengthened economic ties that lie ahead are anticipated both countries.

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Over 250 leaders of large companies, holdings and industrial enterprises, banks, ministries, agencies and industry associations from Uzbekistan and Germany attended a joint business forum held in Berlin on May 2 this year on the eve of the visit of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Sh.M.Mirziyoyev to the Federal Republic of Germany.
The active development of bilateral relations between Uzbekistan and Germany in recent years achieved dues to the trust and political will of the two countries was stressed by Jamshid Khodjaev, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, in his welcoming speech.
The double growth in mutual trade turnover over the past five years was noted by the sides. Another 50% growth of the indicators of bilateral trade was recorded at the end of 2022. It exceeded one billion euros for the first time.
They also observe consistent dynamics in investment cooperation and industrial partnership. A nearly threefold increase of the number of enterprises with German equity investment set up in Uzbekistan has been noted for a few years and it exceeded 200 units. An 11-fold growth of the total volume of German investments since 2017 made it exceed 4 billion euros. Business is already being done very successfully and new productions are being actively launched in Uzbekistan by many German companies, such as MAN, CLAAS, Knauf, GP Papenburg, Viessmann, Deutsche Kabel, LEMKEN.
Conditions created in Uzbekistan for comfortable work of foreign investors, as well as the strengths of the Uzbek economy drew the attention of German business circles. They particularly noted high human resource potential, strategic geographical position, free trade regimes with CIS countries, the GSP+ status, active efforts to join the World Trade Organization, rich resources of raw materials and direct support of the leadership and government in joint projects and initiatives.
Energy, chemical, food and textile industries, metallurgy, automotive industry, agriculture, production of building materials, electrical engineering, as well as pharmaceuticals and health care are the most promising areas for building long-term cooperation.
High appreciation of the results of economic reforms pursued in Uzbekistan, which have yielded, among other things, comfortable conditions for foreign investors working in the country, was given by representatives of German business circles. A firm commitment to step up cooperation and work out new joint projects was expressed by the sides.
B2B meetings and presentations of concrete cases and projects in various sectors of Uzbekistan’s economy continued the forum.

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