Round table on building materials issues within the CU and CES

The round table "Problems and Prospects of the construction materials industry within the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space", held in Moscow in early September with the support of the Department of Industrial Policy of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Union of Cement Producers, became a platform for discussing many issues that are becoming increasingly important: problems of industry development in the CU and CES member countries and prospects for removing barriers to industrial cooperation in these countries.

Among the positive trends of recent years, the participants of the round table noted the high growth rates of the cement industry due to the introduction of new capacities by Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh producers.
Director of the Department of Industrial Policy of the EEC Vladimir Maltsev named the construction materials industry as one of the priority areas of cooperation between the CU and CES member states, approved by the Decision of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the level of Heads of Government "On the main directions of coordination of national industrial policies of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation" dated May 31, 2013 No. 40. The official also noted that in order to develop measures to stimulate the development of construction materials production in these countries, an expert group on the construction materials industry was formed under his department and a corresponding analysis of the industry was carried out, according to which the development of construction materials production is determined by the national priority of each of the CU and CES member countries and is reflected in the Troika's strategic program documents.

According to the EEC representative, the CU and CES countries are united by the presence of similar key problems that hinder the development of this industry. These include insufficient development of modern technologies for the production of building materials, a low share of building materials with high added value, insufficient allocation of funds for the development of urban planning science and the creation of innovative building materials, increased competition in the domestic and foreign markets from foreign manufacturers due to their technological leadership. "At the same time, in the context of the worsening crisis in the global economy regarding cement production in the CU and CES member states, there is a risk of overproduction of cement on the CES domestic market," the Director of the Department stressed. "So, at present, with a total cement production capacity of 125 million tons, its consumption in the CU and CES member states is about 81 million tons per year."

An important area of work on these issues is the development of agreements aimed at developing a unified system of technical regulation for the CU countries. According to Vasily Boitsov, the development of an agreement necessary for establishing common principles and approaches for the formation of common safety of products for which there are no common technical regulations has already been agreed," as well as the development of an international agreement establishing the procedure and conditions for removing technical barriers in mutual trade with third countries.

All participants of the event noted the relevance and fundamental importance of holding discussions on the development of construction materials production within the CU and CES. The participants stressed the need to hold similar events in the future, where representatives of the business community, national government agencies and the EEC can exchange views and develop solutions necessary for the effective development of the industry. The practical outcome of the discussion was a number of concrete proposals to promote the development of construction materials production in the CU and CES. The participants of the meeting spoke in favor of developing promising areas in the field of construction materials production in the CU and CES member countries, including the development of a plan for the placement of new capacities, the construction of machine-building plants for the production of equipment for the construction materials industry. They also proposed to develop a methodology for assessing and forecasting the development of the construction materials industry, taking into account the growth of their consumption by housing and infrastructure projects in the member countries of the Eurasian integration project.