As prepared for delivery
Minister Sultanov, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to this session on investment in the Eurasian Economic Union region.
Investment turns resources into industries, transport links into trade and ideas into jobs. For a region of more than 180 million people, what matters is how often that happens, and where.
I want to make two points before we hear from our panel. One on where investment in the region is going. And one on how to spread it wider.
I will start with where investment is going.
Today, I am pleased to launch our new report on investment in the Eurasian Economic Union. Its central finding is a contrast. Last year, the value of announced greenfield projects in the region rose from $23 billion to $26 billion. Yet the number of projects itself fell by a third, from 122 to 80. Investment is going into fewer, larger projects.
Large projects do matter. A single plant can transform an industry, anchor a supply chain and train a generation of engineers. Yet growth that lasts needs a wider base: more projects, in more places, for firms of every size. The component supplier, the logistics company and the food processor are what turn one large plant into a regional economy.
This brings me to my second point: how to spread investment.
The Union has a strong base on which to widen that pipeline: natural resources, industrial capabilities, skilled workers, strategic transport connections and a common market of five countries.
Connectivity is the multiplier. Container traffic on Eurasia’s five main transport corridors more than tripled in the decade to 2023. Three of the Union’s five members – Armenia, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic – are landlocked developing countries. For them, a new rail link, a dry port or a faster border crossing can matter as much as a new factory. It decides whether that factory reaches its markets.
Regional cooperation can help, by simplifying procedures, aligning rules and giving investors the predictability that long-term commitments require. And here in Doha, this session will also explore partnerships with investors from the Gulf. Some are already under way: last year, companies from the United Arab Emirates announced more than $800 million in new projects in the region, and sponsors from Oman backed $1.4 billion in project finance.
I look forward to hearing from Minister Sultanov, Deputy Minister Ilichev and Mr Sabirov on how the region intends to take these opportunities forward.
Excellencies,
This report shows a region investing big. The opportunity now is to invest wide: across more firms, more places and more connections. I hope this session helps chart that course.
I thank you.