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Georgi Muradov, Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo
In this year for the first time
we are regularly and stably carrying out the presidential program
on exposing our country to our guests, relatively young people -
not so young, experienced, mature, but at the same time still representing the younger generation,
and holding events designed
to ensure that all of you, dear guests, feel closer to Russia,
understand it better, have seen it with your own eyes,
feel something with your hands, look into the eyes of our Russian people,
talk to them and talk to each other.
But the main goal of our work focuses on one thing:
strengthening the ties of friendship, fraternal relations, traditional relations,
in this case - with the countries formed in the post-Soviet space.
And the second goal is to bring an objective, not embellished, image of Russia
to our international friends and partners.
Today, in this hall there are mostly business representatives from the CIS countries,
representatives of those circles that are daily, constantly feel the pulse of economic developments
in their countries, the pulse of relationships in business, economics,
between Russia and the countries they represent.
But there are also public figures and representatives
of the journalists in foreign countries.
I think that this visit was really interesting
not only because of its content in terms of meetings,
in terms of journeys, cultural events, trips to various benchmarks,
I would say, to the points of development situated in Moscow and the surrounding regions;
it also still had that sparkle in the form of central event -
the forum which focused on economic integration,
creation of a common economic space
and examined the potential of young people,
the young business of our country in this process.
Irina Ponomarenko, head of the Department of Economic Theory of BGUT
Belarus has always been very close to Russia.
In addition, more than 90% of our gross production is associated with Russia,
and cultural or any other ties with Russia have never been broken in principle,
because we are very close to Russia.
Economically, we are connected to the Russian economy.
Any positive stages of the development of Russian industry,
the Russian scientific and technological advances
very quickly find application in the field of Belarusian industry.
Of course, if some critical moments take place in Russia,
they are very complex echoes on the Belarusian economy,
because after all the engineering industry of our economy cannot exist without Russia,
in terms of the economy.
From the humanitarian point of view,
the Belarusian human population
cannot really consider themselves separate from Russia,
apart from the former Soviet Union, the countries of the CIS.
Maybe that's why it is so easy to talk to each other
for young people remembering Soviet roots
but at the same time having their own way of development.
It is very easy to talk to on this forum,
maybe because a friendly, supportive environment
was created by the management,
and may be due to the fact that this relationship does not need to be confirmed.
We do not have anything to prove to each other,
we're just looking for contacts.
We are looking for additional opportunities at this forum,
in order to implement them later in our work every day.
Popularizing the ideas of integration is obvious to many people,
at least to our delegation.
I would like to point out that
small and medium business is usually the most flexible and fastest growing,
including such business in Belarus.
The number of registered companies,
the amount of tax revenue from small and medium businesses
is growing very strongly annually.
Relationship between small and medium-sized enterprises is direct,
and above all the educational level of our business
is today on the agenda in Belarus:
this is educational integration,
integration at the level of small and medium enterprises.
This is very important for the common good, in my opinion.
Beslan Baratelia, Dean of the Faculty of Economics of the Abkhazian State University
Abkhazian delegation is participating in this forum,
despite the fact that Abkhazia is not
officially a member of the CIS and of the EEA.
Despite this, people in Abkhazia watch with great interest
the events that occur in the post-Soviet space,
because Abkhazia is part of Eurasia.
We live in the world of growing globalization.
Today it is clear that it is difficult to survive
and to compete in the stormy world of competition to a country if it is alone.
Naturally, the countries of the world should unite.
Integration and globalization are moving towards regionalization.
Of course, in the post-Soviet space a new group of integration is forming
which is growing out of the former Soviet Union,
but, of course, at a new qualitative level.
The challenges are numerous: it is a different starting level
and the internal problems of the participating countries.
All these problems, in principle, can be overcome,
with the political will and interest of the participants.
Of course, this process will be difficult and time-consuming,
and its participants will face conflicts and compromises.
There is experience of the successful development
of integration processes in the world;
in particular, I mean the European Union.
I think a lot of things can be taken from this process,
and many mistakes will be taken into account.
But, nevertheless, we should be ready
that this is a lengthy and complex process of negotiations,
because, apart from the general idea of integration,
each Member State has its own national interests,
which should also be taken into account,
because we are talking about a voluntary participation of all the countries.
The countries should feel that this association will give them dividends.
Most importantly, the process of integration and development of the Eurasian Union in question,
the idea of it should be attractive, and countries should strive to become members of the union.
As we can see, many countries that are not EU members are trying to become members of the organization -
only because they associate their future with something lighter and better.
The same goes for the Eurasian space:
if the Eurasian Union can show that it is good for the participants,
then it will be attractive to other countries, and this alliance will expand.
But so far it's just an idea, and we hope that it will be implemented.