Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 26 October (BelTA) – Over the course of 25 years the Commonwealth of Independent States has gone a complicated way of establishment and search for optimal forms of cooperation. Sergei Lebedev, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, CIS Executive Secretary, made the statement during the international conference “Laying the foundation in the UNECE region for economic integration and sustainable development towards 2030” in Minsk on 26 October, BelTA has learned.

The 25^th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Independent States is marked this year. “I have to admit that in this time the Commonwealth went a long way of development and search for optimal forms of cooperation. The CIS is needed because it strives to achieve concrete results taking into account every member state,” believes Sergei Lebedev.

Regional integration is becoming a more and more important part of international economic relations. “It is necessary for resolving urgent problems and for improving the effectiveness of using and developing the technological and intellectual base. These objective reasons encourage the CIS states to introduce integration interaction primarily in economic affairs,” said Sergei Lebedev.

Free trade in services, open access to government procurement contracts, more vigorous cooperation in matters concerning currency and finance, including higher adoption of national currencies in mutual transactions, the implementation of infrastructure projects, and incentives for small and medium businesses can be new points of growth of the CIS economy.

The Commonwealth of Independent States has become a unique platform for constant sincere and constructive talks at the top level, said Sergei Lebedev. The fact allows tackling many serious issues in a routine manner. “Even if opinions of CIS member states are different, they will still continue cooperating in matters of mutual interest,” said Sergei Lebedev.

The official also mentioned the advancement of the constructive dialogue between the Commonwealth of Independent States and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) with a view to resolving the problems that affect interests of the member states.