Moldova is one of the members of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) officially launched on May 7, 2009 and consisting of six post-Soviet states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). The EaP is meant to serve as the framework for discussions between the European Union (EU) and its Eastern European and Caucasian neighbors on issues of economic cooperation, trade, regional economic policy implementation and others.
Kanat Makhanov is a research fellow at the Eurasian Institute of the International H.A Yassawi Kazakh-Turkish University. He holds a BA in Business Economics from the KIMEP University from 2012. In 2014 he earned his Masters degree in Economics from the University of Vigo (Spain), completing his thesis on “Industrial Specialization in autonomous regions of Spain and Kazakhstan”. His main research interests are Spatial Economics, Economic Geography, Regional Economics, Human and Economic Geography.