The EDB System of Indicators of Eurasian Integration: Trends and Dynamics of the Eurasian Economic Integration in 199992012

Abstract

For almost two decades, regional cooperation and integration has remained one of the most talked about issues of economic policy of the post-Soviet countries. There are hundreds of initiatives and projects that aim for deepened cooperation between countries in the region. In many cases, these initiatives have overlapping membership and objectives, ceased to exist or were re-established by the same actors; agreements with similar content (like free trade areas or customs unions) were signed over and over again by the same countries. This variety of outcomes called for a comprehensive system to monitor and assess the current processes of economic, political and social interaction between countries. Undeservingly, the CIS region did not possess any of these comprehensive studies and measurements. Therefore, typically, the assessments had to be done on ad-hoc basis and were limited in terms of scope of aspects of cross-border interaction covered and time span of analysis.The blank space was filled by the large-scale research project initiated and implemented by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). The outcome of the project completed by the end of 2009 was a System of Indicators of Eurasian Integration (SIEI), which is intended to become an instrument to monitor and assess regional integration projects in the post-Soviet space. In 2013 the second version of SIEI was published by the EDB’s Centre for Integration Studies. Generally, SIEI represents analysis of a long-term integration trends in countries and groups of countries of the post-Soviet space for the entire period from 1999 to 2012. During the analysis of a number of indicators individual attention is also paid to the short-term dynamics from 2009 to 2012.