Vladimir Putin’s opening remarks:

Good afternoon, colleagues,

I am pleased to greet all of the participants of the EurAsEC Interstate Council meeting. Today’s agenda is rather dense and includes over a dozen important issues. There is no doubt that our discussion will be constructive and businesslike as usual, based on our close cooperation and traditional partnership.

The EurAsEC is over 10 years old. We have accomplished a great deal over this time in terms of building cooperation, as well as implementing specific initiatives. It is worth especially noting that a number of truly breakthrough projects have been launched in the EurAsEC framework – the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, which are two major steps towards greater integration.

The EurAsEC court will start operating from January 1, 2012, consolidating the legal aspects within the community and creating additional guarantees for the interests of each country's businesses.

I would like to thank our Belarusian colleagues for the site's swift preparation, including the renovations of the building chosen in Minsk.

During the difficult time of the global economic downturn, the EurAsEC promptly worked out some effective instruments to respond to global economic risks and to protect the common economic interests and social welfare of our countries’ people. We have formed an anti-crisis fund, with part of its resources already allocated to support Belarus and Tajikistan.

The present state of international financial markets has confirmed that we were right to build a mutual anti-crisis support system. We have just discussed the need to take a similar decision regarding support for Kyrgyzstan at our restricted attendance meeting.

The state of the global economy is less than encouraging. We know this all too well. Risks and uncertainty are piling up and it is obvious that the crisis is deep-rooted. The old structural imbalance is still out there, unfortunately. All of the above indicates that we should continue pursuing a well-gauged and coordinated policy and accurate cooperative actions. We should wisely take full advantage of our integration projects.

I am confident that the further expansion of our integration and the implementation of large joint projects will lend a powerful momentum to our countries’ economic growth and promote rapid development, joint production projects and new high-tech jobs. Consequently, integration will eventually contribute to improving the quality of life for millions of people in all of our countries.

Allow me to emphasise that cooperation within the EurAsEC is a top priority for Russia. We intend to further contribute to boosting this organisation’s international influence and authority and making it even more effective. We expect this meeting to help us outline new horizons for developing our multifaceted partnership.

I hope that all of you will have a productive and rewarding time at this meeting and enjoy your stay in St Petersburg.

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Colleagues,

I would like to cite just a few of Russia’s latest performance results. The GDP growth is estimated at 4% for this year. Industrial production will increase by an estimated 5.4% (5.4% in the first nine months of 2011). Manufacturing is growing even faster at 7.6%, and agriculture is expected to grow by 9.6% (nearly 10%).

Russia is almost certain to balance its budget this year, with a foreign trade surplus of $150 billion. Its sovereign debt is kept low at 10% of the GDP, with only 3% of that accounting for foreign debt. The country’s international reserves are rising.