Eurasian Economic Commission okays development of e-Bus program
MOSCOW, 12 December (BelTA) — On 12 December, the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission okayed the development of the draft interstate program «Eurasian Electric Bus» which was suggested by Belarus, BelTA learned from the EEC.
«The document was prepared at the initiative of Belarus in the furtherance of the recommendation of the EEC Council of 15 February this year to promote cooperation between the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union in electric vehicle construction,» the EEC said.
«The main goal of the interstate program is to meet the demand of the Eurasian Economic Union market for electric buses with the help of highly localized products manufactured in the EAEU,» Artak Kamalyan, Member of the Board — Minister in charge of Industry and Agriculture of the EEC, said as he commented on the decision.
According to him, to achieve this goal, it is important to solve a number of problems, in particular, to upgrade equipment and set up batch production of components and assemblies for electric buses, to ramp up the production of such components. It is also necessary to strengthen the competences of Eurasian suppliers of equipment and components for electric buses, to increase the level of localization of subcomponents for them. Other important tasks include the development of research and development competencies in the production of electric buses, and the reduction of the share of imports in the cost of components.
A umber of manufacturers have confirmed their participation in the program. These are Belkommunmash, the Joint Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, MAZ (Belarus), Iron Stream (Armenia), KAMAZ, Renera (Russia). These are the key organizations with which the idea of developing the interstate program was discussed in one form or another,» the EEC emphasized.
The program is expected to create technologies, materials and devices that will contribute to the successful development of several industries.
The EEC Council is composed of deputy prime mnisters of the five EAEU countries. Belarus is represented by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko.
