MINSK, 17 June (BelTA) – Belarus-Russia Union State will remain the linchpin of the integration in the CIS, says Belarus’ draft social and development program for 2016-2020, which is to be discussed at the 5th Belarusian People’s Congress, BelTA has learned.
The draft program reads that the Belarus-Russia Union State will remain the linchpin of the integration processes in the CIS region. Joint Belarusian-Russian projects in industry, agriculture, science and technology, military and social cooperation will strengthen the competitive advantages of the economic entities of the two countries on a mutually beneficial basis. Export will be gradually diversified to achieve equitable distribution of exports between the three markets: the Eurasian Economic Union, the European Union, the countries of “distant arc” and other countries, which will help Belarus balance out its foreign trade, develop new markets, and reduce the risk of dependence of the Republic of Belarus on certain countries-trading partners.
Economic integration within the Eurasian Economic Union is among the priorities within the current five-year period. The draft program envisages the efforts to develop the single market for goods and services through the systemic work to remove exemptions and restrictions to mutual trade in the Eurasian Economic Union, to develop the joint mechanisms of insurance, lending, leasing, export promotion. The program also provides for the development of coherent industrial, agricultural, energy and transport policies, promoting the industrial integration, and implementing joint research-and-production development programs in the priority economic areas.