Balkans to Asia-2021
Scouting Economic Opportunities for stronger collaboration
Balkans to Asia 2021 aimed to connect stakeholders and businesses from the Western Balkans and Asia, facilitating international collaboration and mutual economic growth. Organized by the Caucasus-Asia Center, the Balkan Economic Forum, and the European Academy of the Regions, this global business conference took place over the course of two days. The aftershocks of COVID-19 left the globe in economic ruin, but discussions during this conference yielded many ideas to overcome the obstacles created by the pandemic. This event, done in a mix of online and offline mode, allowed many business officials in Asia and the Balkans to connect, facilitated discussions on how to overcome the barriers hindering Balkan-Asia relations, and yielded a fruitful outcome, creating a strong desire to build trust and a strong business network in the long term.
Nelu Neacsu, shared an opening remark at the event followed by Prof. Sasho sharing his thoughts on how he envisions the event to be shaped in the future.
Mr. Henri Malosse, 30th President of the European Economic and Social Committee, formally opened the event, discussing the economic benefits of closer economic cooperation between the Balkans, Asia, and the EU. Malosse highlighted the importance of maintaining Balkan-European relations, investing more in the Balkan region, and improving infrastructure in the Balkans, a topic emphasized throughout the conference.
The first panel of the conference discussed Prospecting New Economic Opportunities to create Sustainable Balkans-to-Asian Value Chains. The first speaker, Mr. Zoran Martinovski, World Bank group expert, discussed the Chinese economic agenda under the Belt and Road initiative in the Western Balkans. Mr. Martinovski discussed the challenges and opportunities for the Western Balkan nations that emerge from economic ties with China, the intent behind Chinese financial endeavors in the Balkans, characteristics of Chinese-Balkans relations, and the pros and cons of Chinese investments in the Balkans. China deals with nations at a bilateral level, having a collective approach for Central and Eastern Europe, and China’s main objective is to sell their goods to the European Union, using the Balkans as a trade route. China’s share of trade with the Western Balkans is low, creating a significant trade deficit in the region.
Roxana Minzatu, former Minister for European Funds at the Government of Romania discussed the topic of “Building bridges and navigating crises: social economy as a model of resilience and inclusive digital transformation”. Throughout her presentation, Minzatu discussed building bridges through digital transformation, highlighted the social economy and its relevance, reviewed Romania’s social economy legislation, and concluded with a challenge to support an inclusive digital transformation that includes the most vulnerable. This solution involves tackling challenges like digital access, affordability, skills, and awareness. Romania’s technological struggles are similar to that of many countries in Asia. Thus, many of these policies can also be applied to other nations.
The next panel of this conference addressed challenges for stakeholder collaboration under emerging new realities. The first speaker, Mr. Attila Galambos, Chair of the Western Balkan Committee of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, discussed various dynamics in Asian-Balkan cooperation. Galambos emphasized the importance of using local resources and workforces and preventing the establishment of the savior economic environment. When asked how to solve the central issue of discussion, Galambos emphasizes not relying on existing organizations if they don’t work and highlights the importance of having a plan B. Planning out possibilities is essential, as well as learning from past mistakes from the pandemic.
Dr. Dumitru Tudor, Associate professor, PhD, Director of the Centre for Balkan Studies, University Alexandru Ioan Cuza IAȘI — ROMANIA reviewed how and why the EU should support linking Southeast Asia to the Western Balkans. Tudor emphasized the importance of establishing exclusive economic contact, economic missions and events, and finding support as solutions to this issue. Tudor believes we can address these challenges by using existing solutions and institutions. Institutions should be created when there is a significant need, such as this issue, and involve interconnecting information.
Dr. Hriday Sarma, co-founder of Caucasus-Asia center, discussed about connecting opportunities in the frontiers of Asia with the Western Balkans. He highlighted the untapped opportunities that exist in the frontier spaces and how could international businesses take the low market entry price advantage at this point in time, while scaling up their business operations in the post-Covid-19 era. He also highlighted the importance and urgent need for frontier countries to embrace digitization to leapfrog the development trajectory.
Dr. Shahab Enam Khan, Professor, Department of International Relations, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, discussed prospects for global economic partnerships in Bangladesh in the post-COVID-19 phase. Khan reviews Bangladeshi policies over the past few years and hopes for Bangladesh to collaborate with the worldwide community in the future to advance public health, build social capital, collaborate with education, advance social entitlements, and learn political stability strategies. Prof. Shahab Enam Khan emphasized investing in social norms and looking upon the traditional approach in cooperation regions. A critical factor he emphasized is greater mobility between nations. Khan also suggests that more incredible intellectual and political interactions are required for collaboration. Shahab Enam Khan concludes by saying that diversity of thought and background is necessary to develop solutions.
The second day of the conference revolved with the panel on strategizing the pathway for Western Balkan to Asia business ties. Mr. Darko Angelov, former Ambassador of North Macedonia to Hungary, Kazakhstanand Greece and Council of Europe program manager for Russia, kicked off the second day through his topic on: ‘Making Geography Work for Increased Balkans and Asia Business Relationship: The Case for Logistics and Transport.’ Mr. Angelov pointed out to the fact that at times when the pandemic has rendered the “Just in Time” mode of production inadequate to meet the ongoing supply-chain disruptions, the global economy has to swiftly adapt; This implies building the necessary infrastructure that would enable stockpiling of necessary, strategic produce, ranging from medical supplies, microchips, to energy, such as natural gas. This would be done by having warehouses return to their original role of storing, and not just rerouting goods as it predominantly became the case in the past couple of decades. The Balkans, with its strategic location at the crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa, can become the global logistical switchboard and warehouse. It has the right location, increasingly the needed infrastructure, competitive workforce, and customs-free access to the EU. Balkan governments should urgently address this opportunity offered by the Pandemic by stimulating private investment in the transport and logistics sectors, whilst accelerating their own investment in the much needed infrastructure improvement.
Mr. Drilon Iseni, CEO of the Economic Chamber of Northwestest Macedonia, followed up by discussing how to overcome trade barriers to access the Asian market. Foreign trade relations in the Western Balkan countries have experienced considerable change due to the fall of the Iron Curtain and the dissolution of Yugoslavia, both of which weakened global relations. International trade is carried out by both businesses and governments — as long as no one puts up trade barriers. Economists overwhelmingly agree that trade barriers are detrimental and decrease overall economic efficiency. These trade barriers are significant obstacles for Balkan businesses trying to enter large Asian markets. Overcoming the trade barriers, in addition to being addressed by the businesses themselves, should also be addressed at diplomatic/political/government level in order to address those barriers in a systematic and institutional manner.
Mr. Manish Kumar,Deputy Director at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), discussed potential economic opportunities to create sustainable value chains from the Balkans to Asia. The diverse and resource-rich Western Balkans region is seeing a faster-than-expected recovery, creating an opportunity for the Asian countries, such as China, India, and South Korea, to engage with them. However, all speakers pointed out a caution that cross-border trade should not be a one way flow of goods and services. Instead, trade must meet the needs of the countries and people in the Western Balkan region as well. The better integrated a country or industry, the stronger the link will be, as its exports are more widely used in the production process in other countries. One of the most pressing issues to make the Western Balkans more attractive to foreign direct investments is improving the overall situation with the transport and infrastructure availability.
The last key speaker at the Conference was Mr. Pavel Ustiuzhaninov, Head of the Center for Strategic Development of the Russian-Chinese Chamber. The main takeaway from his presentation was that there is a need for enhanced international cooperation by creating an information platform for Eurasian businesses. One of the main proposals was for the Balkan countries’ relevant stakeholders to join the already created and operational information platform for Eurasian businesses, such as the Russian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The basic aim of this platform is to provide operational business information, where the main components include several sections: 1) digital economy and innovation; 2) industry and mechanical engineering; 3) transport and logistics; 4) agriculture, forest and water resources; 5) culture and tourism; 6) metallurgy and mining; 7) financial and banking activities; 8) energy; 9) cooperation in social sectors, education and health; 10) state cooperation.
The main activities of this platform are to organize networking events with the potential business partners, as well as organizational and informational support of events, visits, and business programs. In addition, it accepts applications, proposals, and projects on import-export, technology transfer, investment, research of business needs, as well as assistance to cooperation organizations.
Throughout the conference, common themes were improving infrastructure in the Balkans, how economically hindered the Balkan region is compared to the rest of Europe, and the necessity of cooperation and inclusion. Participants of this event hope that next year will yield an even more fruitful discussion than the last.
This report is prepared by Courtney Weigel, a fellow at the Caucasus-Asia Center.
