Eldar Alisherov, the Eurasian Economic Commission's integration and macroeconomics minister, delivered a keynote at the roundtable titled "Ten Years of the EAEU: Challenges and Prospects". The event is part of the 4th Eurasian Economic Forum, which opened in Minsk on June 26.
"Over the past decade, the Eurasian Economic Union—established as a versatile platform to align and amplify the competitive advantages of the closest post-Soviet states in Eurasia—has proven its effectiveness and has firmly established itself as an international integration bloc", Alisherov said. "It boasts a robust institutional and legal framework that meets the highest standards of advanced international practice."
"Amid global market instability and an unfavorable international political climate, the EAEU contributes to stabilizing the macroeconomic situation in its member states", he stressed. "It ensures steady and positive growth across key sectors and supports the economic ties established within the EAEU region."
Alisherov presented a review of EAEU economic performance over the past decade, which has demonstrated a positive trend.
From 2015, shortly after the EAEU was established, to 2024, the combined GDP of its member countries increased by 17.8%, which corresponds to an absolute growth of nearly $1 trillion. The growth in the combined GDP in 2023–2024 exceeded the global average, reaching between 4.3% and 4.4%. The EAEU has made significant progress in improving the overall well-being of its population. Based on purchasing power parity, the EAEU's GDP per capita increased to $41,200 in 2023, up from $22,700 in 2015. In 2024, the value of turnover in goods among the member states increased by 2.1 times compared to 2015, reaching $97.7 billion, up from $45.6 billion. Over the past 10 years, the volume of external trade between the EAEU member states and countries outside the Union increased by 1.4 times, reaching $795 billion in 2024. Every member state recorded positive dynamics.
Eldar Alisherov further highlighted the EAEU's achievements in establishing unified markets for goods, services, capital, and labor. He emphasized the Union's promising avenues for growth aligned with the Declaration adopted by EAEU heads of state in 2023, which sets the integration roadmap through 2030 and up to 2045. In particular, he underscored the importance of digitalizing economic processes, fostering cooperation, unlocking the Union's technological potential, creating a common transport and logistics space, and developing new sectors with strong integration potential.
He also pointed out a number of bottlenecks in the integration among member states. These include the relatively small share of bilateral investments within the total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the EAEU—although these flows are significant for countries like Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, the absence of a sustained long-term trend toward income convergence among member states, and the current lack of institutional mechanisms to promote economic convergence based on development levels. The parties are continuing their efforts in these areas.
Participants were presented with informational brochures on the socio-economic development of the EAEU countries, highlighting a decade of integration within the Union.
