| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Russian EU-Adjacent Regions Grow the Fastest
Russia’s regions bordering on the European Union are the fastest-growing in the country, while areas bordering on China and Mongolia show quite the opposite, a research of the Center for Development says. The research shows that Russia’s Western and Eastern neighbors are promoting two strikingly different types of cooperation with adjacent Russian regions.
The EU’s enlargement in 2004 caused fears that Russia’s exports to Eastern Europe will be restricted and transit will be more complex. Quite on the contrary, the average tariff rate on Russian goods on the EU market has fallen to 4 percent from 9 percent while quotas on a number of goods have been raised, the Center for Development notes.
Russia’s Western regions gained the most from the EU’s enlargement. Their share in the Russian industrial output has grown to 6.8 percent from 5.3 percent since 1995. This indicator has fallen in other border regions (especially those bordering on China). Leonid Vardomsky, head of the Center for CIS and Baltic Countries Studies at the Russian Academy of Science’, says that the European Union follows the policy of supporting Eastern territories – those which have already entered the EU as well as those bordering on the union.
The situation on the Chinese border is quite the opposite. “China has demand only on oil, timber and other raw materials,” Vardomsky says. The economy of Russia’s Far East is “being simplified” as a result. The gross regional product of the Far Eastern Federal District grew 36 percent between 1999 and 2004, compared to 57 percent in the North Western district.
China is not interested in setting up production in other countries but Russia may prompt the Eastern neighbor to do it, with dumping quotas and higher duties on natural resources exports as well as fighting smuggling more effectively.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 29, 2006
|
|
|
