Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan, is hosting the 10^th Russian-Kyrgyz Interregional Conference, New Horizons of Russia-Kyrgyzstan Industrial Cooperation. The event’s business programme involves over 600 representatives of both countries’ businesses, public organisations and state agencies. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov greeted conference participants. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk and Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Akylbek Japarov, Chief of Staff of the Kyrgyzstan’s Presidential Executive Office, took part in the plenary meeting. Excerpts from the transcript: Alexei Overchuk: Good afternoon, Mr Japarov, good afternoon, everyone. First of all, I would like to thank the Kyrgyz side for the warm reception and for organising the 10^th Russian-Kyrgyz Interregional Conference, New Horizons of Russia-Kyrgyzstan Industrial Cooperation. In the years of its existence, the conference has earned a reputation as a prestigious discussion platform, bringing together representatives of state agencies, business and expert circles from various regions of Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Last year, over 400 delegates from many regions of our countries took part in the work of the conference in Yekaterinburg.

Russia and Kyrgyzstan are strategic partners and allies, and our relations are based not only on economic ties but also on our long and friendly history.

Trade between the two countries in 2022 was $3.4 billion, which is over 35 percent higher than in 2021; in January-July 2023, bilateral trade grew by another 12.2 percent.

We pay a great deal of attention to interregional cooperation. Over 80 Russian regions are currently maintaining trade and economic ties with Kyrgyzstan. Among the most active in developing trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian ties with their Kyrgyz partners are Moscow, the Moscow Region, St Petersburg, and the Sverdlovsk, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo, Kurgan, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions.

The legal contractual framework for interaction between Russian and Kyrgyz regions is developing gradually. More than 20 Russian regions have already signed agreements on trade, economic, research, technical and cultural cooperation with Kyrgyz regions and government agencies.

Cooperation between the two countries’ regions is multifaceted, and includes trade and economic ties, industrial cooperation, and cultural interaction.

Art exhibitions, concerts and conferences devoted to the cultural unity of Russia and Kyrgyzstan are being held. Cooperation between universities is going well. Russian universities establish direct contacts with their Kyrgyz partners, sign agreements and contracts, as well as memorandums on scientific cooperation with research and educational organisations.

Some 16,000 Kyrgyz nationals are currently enrolled at Russian universities. A branch of the Russian State Social University in Osh and a branch of Kazan National Research Technological University in Kant are operating successfully. Construction is underway of nine secondary Russian-language schools for 1,200 students each, with a total capacity of over 11,000 people. I believe that the first three schools will open starting as soon as 1 September 2026.

I want to note the great potential for developing cooperation between our regions in such areas as the agro-industrial sector, construction, energy, transport, innovative technologies, as well as creating industrial production chains.

Russian companies, including those present here, are ready to offer to their Kyrgyz colleagues their valuable experience in constructing hydroelectric power plants in the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as their services related to the development, manufacturing and delivery of hydropower equipment.

Rosatom’s project to build the Leilek small-scale hydropower plant, for example, is at an advanced stage of implementation. Before the end of 2023, plans call for launching the project’s first power line with a capacity of 2.9 MW.

Russia is one of the main investors in the economy of Kyrgyzstan. Over 40 major projects are currently being implemented in the country with Russian participation.

I would like to praise the work of the Russan Export Centre, whose representative office opened on 25 September 2023 in Bishkek. In 2022, the centre’s companies provided financial support, including insurance and loan guarantees, to 36 projects for a total sum of $213.8 million.

The centre is currently working on several promising projects with a total value of some $500 million, and we hope that their implementation will begin in the near future.

We appreciate the contribution of Kyrgyzstan to the development of Eurasian economic integration.

Since Kyrgyzstan joined the EAEU in 2015, its trade with EAEU member countries has soared almost two-fold, while cash transfers to Kyrgyzstan have also nearly doubled.

In times of global change and unprecedented sanctions pressure on Russia, the largest EAEU economy, it is important to remain committed to our union’s basic principles and goals, specifically, equality, the formation of a common market of goods, services, capital and labour, economic development and raising our people’s standards of living. Intra-EAEU trade and cooperation ties, as well as those between Russia and Kyrgyzstan, are a tremendous value which we must maintain. 

Our integration project has another fundamental value: it is geared toward a future where the economic security of all participants must be guaranteed. Today, when all countries are searching for a new global economic model, and when they are establishing regional technological and economic blocs, EAEU countries must have a clear view of their own future and the correct development strategy. For this purpose, Russia suggested drafting a strategic planning document until 2030 and 2045 during its 12-month chairmanship of EAEU governing bodies.

Here, we are setting the goal of completely facilitating the free movement of goods, services, financial flows and human capital on the common EAEU market by 2030, without any exceptions and restrictions. We intend to turn the EAEU into a self-sufficient, safe and harmoniously developed macro-region by 2045 that would appeal to all countries of the multipolar world, show economic-technological and intellectual leadership, and guarantee high standards of living for the population of its member states.

We are grateful to our Kyrgyz colleagues for their constructive approach and proposals while discussing the text of this document on the platform of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the long shared history of the Russian and Kyrgyz nations, the active development of trade and economic, interregional, cultural and humanitarian cooperation on the basis of a common cultural code will help build a self-sufficient Eurasian macro-region living in accordance with the common fair rules we are establishing.

I would like to thank the Kyrgyz side once again for the high level of organisation of today’s conference, and I wish all participants a productive discussion.

Thank you.