The meeting was attended by the Prime Ministers of Kazakhstan Bahytzhan Sagintayev, of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov, of Belarus Syarhey Rumas, of Kyrgyzstan Mukhammedkaliy Abylgaziyev, of Tajikistan Kokhir Rasulzoda, of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov, of Russia Dmitry Medvedev , First Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, Vice-Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan Gocmyrat Myradow, and Sergey Lebedev, Chairman of the Executive Committee - Executive Secretary of the CIS.
After welcoming the heads of the CIS delegations, the President of Kazakhstan emphasized the special significance of the Council meeting in strengthening cooperation of the Commonwealth states.
- Today you are going to take part in the regular meeting as part of the Council of Heads of Government. The meeting agenda includes 15 specific practical issues. I am confident that this event will contribute to the further development of mutually beneficial relations, Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
The Head of State noted the importance of developing trade and economic ties between the CIS countries.
- For more than a quarter of a century, the CIS has established itself as a full-fledged organization that allowed preserving historical ties between our nations and helped strengthen each country’s sovereignty. Today, cooperation within the Commonwealth has become even more significant. Mutual trade within the CIS keeps growing. The previous year the trade value amounted to 164 billion US dollars increasing by 25%. The similar trend remains this year, the President of Kazakhstan said.
Nursultan Nazarbayev has also highlighted the results of the last meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State.
- We addressed the issues of strengthening our organization. This includes promoting the process of its modernization, aimed at enhancing the operative efficiency and transition to modern realities. For widening mutually beneficial economic cooperation as part of the Commonwealth, we have pointed at the need for updating the Economic Development Strategy and speeding-up the adopted projects of the Service Free Trade Agreement of the CIS countries, the Head of State noted.
The President of Kazakhstan separately told of the outcome of discussing new proposals made during the meeting of the Council of Heads of State in Dushanbe. Among them are removing trade barriers within the Commonwealth, improving the efficiency of interaction in transport and logistics and tourism sectors, implementation of projects in the space industry, development of the digital economy and the use of innovative solutions.
- Integration of hi-tech parks and implementation of joint innovation projects will let achieve great synergistic effect for inventing high-tech production in the CIS area. Western governments are making active use of the Internet in 5G format, without which the functioning of artificial intelligence is impossible. We should deal with its cultivation. Each of us will not be able to do this solely, the Head of State emphasized.
At the end of his speech, Nursultan Nazarbayev pointed to the need for practical work on implementing the proposals put forward at the Council of Heads of State.
- The crucial task turns up to be development of a complex of effective measures in all directions. Actualization of these initiatives will not only contribute to economic development, but will also be an important factor in strengthening friendly and stable relations between our states, the President of Kazakhstan said.
The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev and the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev have made speeches at the meeting as well.
