DUSHANBE, October 17, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajik Rime Minister Oqil Oqilov today morning departed for St. Petersburg, where he will preside over the 58th meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Government that is taking place there tomorrow.
According to the Tajik PM Secretariat, the meeting will consider some 30 draft documents dedicated to promote further expansion of cooperation between the CIS member nations in different fields.
The CIS free trade zone treaty drafted by the Russian Federation has also been tabled to the meeting’s agenda.
It is t be noted that the CIS has been trying to form a free trade zone since as far back as the early 1990”s and held a summit in Moscow in May, in which a draft agreement was presented, but there was no final signature. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia formed their own Customs Union earlier this year and scrapped interstate customs tariffs.
The CIS Council of Heads of Government is also expected to consider the draft interstate program for innovation cooperation between the CIS member nations designed for the period until 2020, the draft concept of strategic development of rail transport for the period until 2020, an agreement on the basic principles of the currency regulation and currency control policy as well as the concept of concerted social and demographic policy of the CIS member nations.
The CIS Council of Heads of Government was established on December 21, 1991. The council is the second major body in the CIS after the CIS Council of Heads of State, and consists of the prime ministers of all member states. The council coordinates the CIS member states” cooperation in economic, social and other areas of their common interests, and adopts corresponding decisions through consensus. The CIS Council of Heads of Government convenes twice a year, normally in winter and autumn. Extraordinary meetings are summoned on the initiative of the government of a member state.
At its sessions, the council adopts major documents related to the formation of the free trade zone, the development of industrial partnerships and the common agricultural market, as well as cooperation in the financial sector, space exploration and the management of emergency situations.
