PRESS-RELEASE

General Meeting of the members of Association

“Financial & Banking Association of Euro-Asian Cooperation” 

On March 6, 2019 in Moscow in the headquarters of Association on 17 Kotelnicheskaya nab. the General Meeting of the members of Financial & Banking Association of Euro-Asian Cooperation was held to hear reports and elect new officials. 

  The Meeting covered such issues as the activity of Association during five years, guidelines for 2019 and for the next five years, election of management bodies of FBA EAC.
  The Vice-President of FBA EAC Anatoly Tkachuk opened the Meeting. He welcomed the participants and pointed out that in the last five years FBA EAC has not only proved its feasibility but has also grown in quantity and quality. After that he gave the floor to the Chairman of Coordinating Council Alexander Murychev. In his speech A.Murychev dwelled upon the development of Association’s structure, goals and strategic priorities. As a focus area of Association he named the development of effective financial instruments to meet the business needs of the members and partners of Association.
  Then the Vice-President and the Chairman of Coordinating Council presented FBA EAC Membership Certificates to new members of Association.
  After that the meeting proceeded to the agenda. The FBA EAC General Director Oleg Berezovoy spoke about the work of Association during the period from 2013 to 2018 and about the most promising focus areas. First of all he stressed those areas which mostly contributed to the formation and the development of Association.
  In 2013-2018 the Association has grown in number, several international structures were created such as the legal center, the customs and logistic center, the financial corporation, the human resources center, the information and publishing center, contact-center, commodity exchange, consulting center. The activity of some of these structures has developed into serious work streams within the whole Eurasian space.
  During the reported period a network of representative offices has been created. Today Association is represented in 20 countries of Eurasia giving its members the opportunities to solve their business tasks very quickly. “The latest meeting of the Coordinating Council took the decision to open new representative offices of FBA EAC in Mongolia, Moldavia, The Republic of Korea, Malta, Serbia”, - reported the General Director.
  The FBA EAC “Bank of projects” has been formed during these five years. Speaking about it O.Berezovoy mentioned that the most part of the projects were practical – like search for investors, business partners, coordination of multilateral projects etc., and gave a couple of recent examples. The General Director pointed out the project of «VOLGA-BUS» for the production of electro buses in Volgograd with the participation of the French and Russian companies, the Armenian-Chinese project for the construction of a factory to produce electrical goods in Armenia, the construction of vegetable storehouse in Tula, the Russian-Indian project in the Tver region to grow and proceed flax. He also drew attention to the fact that a number of projects initiated by the Association turned into its focus areas supported by the EAEU Business Council and the Eurasian Economic Commission.
  With this regard the General Director reminded the members of Association about a pilot project of commodity exchange. During this project new settlement instruments were worked out and offered to the foreign trade operators, new opportunities for business development were proposed to SME.
  Another current activity of the Association originated in the project of the Eurasian Human Resources Center (Center), created to provide the members and clients of the Association with up-to-date HR-services and qualified specialists. Extending the project an HR Development Center was created on the basis of the Center together with the Council for Professional Qualification Development and the Eurasian Economic Commission. Also in early 2018 the Association incorporated a Qualification Assessment Center, with trained experts and branches in Erevan and Bishkek having launched a network of examination centers all through EAEU. The head of the Eurasian Human Resources Center today chairs a Work group of the EAEU Business Council on the contingency of specialists’ qualifications for different kinds of performance in the EAEU member-states.
  The Development concept of customs audit on the EAEU territory, approved at the FBA EAC General Meeting in 2018 has grown into a pilot project to be implemented on the platform of Eurasian Customs and Logistics Holding Company. A new program product of the Association of Customs Auditors and Consultants (ATAIK) has been created and passed evaluation test. It was worked out on the basis of a unique propriety methodology for customs audit. The nearest plan is to create a Work group under the EEC or the EAEU Business Council involving all the parties concerned.
  O. Berezovoy also spoke about another promising trend which emerged from the cooperation between FBA EAC and the National Payment Council - a Concept of digital platform for the Eurasian Economic Council, European Union and China called “Digital Belt”, to be implemented up to 2022.
  One more work stream was initiated by the needs of the participants of breakout sessions during the annual Moscow International financial and economic forum and resulted in the creation of a Center of innovative technologies of FBA EAC. It is designed to research the key economy industries and their growth rates as well as to search and introduce advanced technologies and equipment to the benefit of Association’s members and partners.
  Speaking about the Moscow International financial and economic forum of FBA EAC in general, O. Berezovoy said that during five years it saw about a thousand participants from 38 countries. The General Director pointed out that last year the Forum also included the meeting of the International Banking Council. The Association was hosting banking unions from 18 countries of Europe and Asia including such large associations-members to IBC as CIS and BACEE.
  As for other regular events of the Association the General Director mentioned that in the last two years the competition “Financial and Banking Elite of Eurasia” honored with awards the representatives of financial and banking sector from 11 countries.
  O. Berezovoy dwelled on the issues of information and promotion elements of the Association’s work and told the Meeting that starting from February 19, 2019 the FBA EAC press organ – the magazine “Eurasian Financial & Economic Herald” was incorporated as a mass media in the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media. He also underlined the important role of Association’s web site – a unique mass media, a brand identity of the organization, a 24/7 office. Association has set a challenge to promote its website in the search engines of those countries where FBA EAC has its representative offices.
  Another “brand identity” of Association is the international photo contest “The world through the eyes of a photographer” announced by the editorial board of the Herald. The first wrap-up took place last year during the rewarding ceremony of the International public award “Financial and banking elite of Eurasia”. 16 people from 11 countries presented their works, the winners were rewarded with certificates and money.
  Speaking about the staff of Association the General Director pointed out that in the past five years they have prepared and carried out 13 meetings of Coordinating Council (two of them in Minsk and Almaty), 4 meetings of Supervisory Board, 6 General Meetings, 12 round tables, 2 IBC meetings (in Minsk and Moscow). The Association also was a co-organizer of international forums in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. At the meetings and round tables more than 50 topical issues were discussed as well as initiatives of organizational and scientific and practical character, which concerned the cooperation of companies-members to FBA, the work out of concept focus areas of Association, approval of pilot projects, business cooperation with EEC on qualification assessment of labor migrants and creation of international network of HR services, integration of SME into the common exchange system of the EAEU space and introduction of multi-currency clearing system.
  Reporting about quantity and quality development of FBA EAC O. Berezovoy said that during five years of the Association’s work there were more than 80 members in different periods. At the end of 2018 there were 48 members which together with associated members represent 25 countries of Eurasia. In the first two months of the current year 7 organizations joined FBA. This volatility is first of all related to the political and economic situation in Russia and Eurasia, mentioned the General Director.
  In his speech O. Berezovoy touched upon the formation of Association’s budget and drew attention of the Meeting to the approved planned budget for 2019 with anticipated income growth by 3% as compared to the previous year, and expenses decrease by 10% due to spending optimization.
  The General Director also said that the financial audit initiated by Association in 2018 did not reveal any considerable breaches of accounting rules or Russian legislation, and confirmed that the financial report is credible and all the expenses coincide with statutory objectives and goals of FBA EAC, in the allocation of funds breaches were not detected either. “The management has decided to carry out initiated audit every two years. It means that the next audit of the activity in 2019 will be carried out in the first quarter of 2020”, - said O. Berezovoy.
  Basing on the analysis of the financial and business operations of FBA EAC in 2013-2018, О.Berezovoy made the following conclusions:
1. The financial situation of the organization is stable.
2. The share of expenses on events grows.
3. The number of fees grows.
4. Business activity of the organization develops.
  As for the development challenges of Association the General Director mentioned the following:
1.        To expand the range of influence attracting new members and partners.
2.        To support the development of subsidiary and related structures.
3.        To strengthen the control of membership fees inflow.
4.        To optimize expenses.
5.        To intensify commercial income including partnership and sponsor agreements.
  Summing up his speech the General Director once more reminded the Meeting about the landmark of FBA EAC which is a platform uniting not only financial and banking structures but also the real sector of the economy of the Eurasian countries. “FBA EAC has shifted from the traditional idea of a banking association as a structure to protect the professional interests of just a certain number of participants to the construction of a multi-level “client-friendly” system of interaction between business and banking society”, – said О. Berezovoy, – “The Association is always searching for new forms and methods of cooperation between business and banks as well as for the advanced financial instruments”.
  In conclusion О. Berezovoy thanked all the members of the Association for their active work during five years, and wished the new management of Association ever better results.
  The Meeting then welcomed the report of Konstantin Topornin, the Chairman of the Audit Commission, whose report was approved and the work of Association was confirmed as satisfactory.
  And after that the discussion began including:
1.    Andrey Bespalov – Chairman of Coordination Council of the Eurasian Center of Human Resources
2.    Andrey Lisitsyn – senior researcher of the Institute of Industrial Policy and Institutional Development of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation
3.    Vladislav Karasyuk – President of the Eurasian Customs and Logistic Center
4.    Igor Sinchyrin – Deputy Director of SPC “Mashinoexpert” Ltd.
5.    Roman Fadeev – Vice-President on finance of “Silk Way” UCE JSC
6.    Alma Obaeva – CEO, NP “National Payment Council”
7.    Maria Serebrova – General Director of the Association of Customs Auditors and Consultants (ATAiK)
8.    Vladimir Obydenov – Head of Antares Group Companies
9.    Anatoly Kazakov – Advisor to the Office of the Chairman of the Executive Committee – CIS Executive Secretary, Chairman of the Coordination Council of CIS Financial and Banking Council
10. Pavel Nefidov – General Director of CIS Financial and Banking Council
11. Marat Baitokov – 1^st Vice-President, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Association of Banks of the Republic of Kazakhstan
  Then the meeting chair А. Tkachuk offered to elect the FBA EAC management. After the voting it was unanimously decided to elect for five years as the President of Association Bakhytbek Baiseitov (the Republic of Kazakhstan), as Vice-Presidents - Anatoly Tkachuk (Russia) and Kumar Manish (India). The Chairman of the Supervisory Board was elected Timur Zhaksylykov (the Republic of Kazakhstan), the Chairman of Coordinating Council - Alexander Murychev (Russia), the General Director - Oleg Berezovoy (Russia).
  New composition of the Supervisory Board:
1.    Anatoly Aksakov   (Russia)
2.    Andrew Beliyaninov (Kazakhstan)
3.    Timur Zhaksylykov (EEC)
4.    Ives Pozzo di Borgo (France)
5.    Anatoly Kazakov (CIS)
6.    Alma Obaeva (Russia)
7.    Askar Salymbekov (Kyrgyzstan)
8.    Timur Suleimenov (Kazakhstan)
  New composition of the Coordinating Council:
1.    Anvar Abdraev (Kyrgyzstan)
2.    Feodor Afanasov (Romania)
3.    Oleg Berezovoy (Russia)
4.    Andrea Boldi (Italy)
5.    Tigran Davtyan (Armenia)
6.    Danny Deng Di (China)
7.    Egor Ivankov (Russia)
8.    Askar Kishkembayev (EEC)
9.    Vladimir Kotenev (Germany)
10. Kumar Manish (India)
11. Alexander Kuchinsky (Belarus)
12. Boris Miroshnikov (Russia)
13. Alexander Murychev (Russia)
14. Anatoly Tkachuk (Russia)
  New composition of the Audit Commission:
1.                  Konstantin Topornin (Russia)
2.        Marat Baytokov(Kazakhstan)
3.        Alexey Vodyanoy (Russia)
    Summing up the General Meeting of FBA EAC and after the approval of the GM Resolution the meeting chair thanked the attendees and congratulated the newly elected management on the beginning of work.

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