Thursday, 22 November 2007
Today a session of the CIS council of heads of government has been held in Ashkabad, attended by RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan.
Prior to the beginning of the session, early in the morning, the heads of government of CIS countries traveled to Kipchak settlement and laid wreaths to the tomb of first president of Turkmenistan Saparmurad Niyazov, then they went to the Presidency and met with President of Turkmenistan G. Berdymuhamedov.
The session of the CIS council of heads of government was held in Ruhiet Palace. To begin with, the President of Turkmenistan has addressed the participants and wished them successful work.
Proceeding to the agenda, the heads of government have discussed over two tens of questions regarding the cooperation of the CIS countries in a broad range of spheres. In particular, they will review the implementation status of the 2003-2010 program of key action for further development and enhancement of efficiency in the economic interaction between CIS-member States, the realization of more in-depth analyses of economic development, integration processes and overall economic situation, the work done by the Council of Heads of CIS-member States Statistics Services and the CIS Interstate Statistics Board regarding the trends and dynamics traced in the CIS-member States
' economic cooperation towards the fulfillment of the decisions passed by CIS supreme executive bodies, the progress with the implementation of the decision passed by the Council of CIS Heads of State on October 7, 2002 concerning the launching of CIS States' standing expositions on the basis of Moscow's All-Russian Exhibition Center. There have been discussed and adopted decisions on the draft agreement on the interregional and frontier cooperation council, on the main directions of civil aviation development within the CIS States and the program of action for higher flight safety, on the main directions of cross-country transportations development, on the amendments to the March 13, 1992 agreement on uniform policies to be conducted in the area of standardization, measurements and certification, on the amendments to the March 12, 1992 agreement on mutual recognition of privileges granted to invalids, Great Patriotic War participants and people with similar status. Among the decisions bearing on the cooperation in the energy sector, the heads of government have adopted a protocol on the amendments and changes to the February 14, 1992 agreement on harmonization of customs procedures during the transit of electric power through the customs borders and on coordination of interstate relations of CIS-member States in the energy sector.The heads of government have passed a number of decisions concerning the cooperation in the educational sphere. In particular, they referred to the concept note on the development of prospective education in the Commonwealth countries, the agreement on coordination of efforts for information of educational systems in CIS-member States, the granting of a status of base institution to a number of educational establishments inclusive of the Steel and Alloys State Technological University, Moscow State Technical College after Baumann, the Adults Teaching Institute by the Russian Academy of Education, the State Technological University of Belarus, the Special Hardware and Communications research and development association by the RF Interior Ministry.
The session has also discussed a number of financial issues, which regarded the 2008 single budget of CIS bodies as funded from the CIS-member States national budgets, the performance of the 2006 single budget and the amended budget for the year 2007, the funding of the launching and development of the CIS-member States
' integrated anti-aircraft defense system in 2008, as well as the funding of the 2008 plan of action for the implementation of the concept note on the development of a social and medical base for the prevention of disablement and improvement of living standards in the participants of local conflicts, peacekeeping operations, war veterans and victims of terrorism.The heads of government have similarly reviewed organizational matters. In particular, Nawriz Aidarov has been appointed to be Chairman-Assistant Secretary of the CIS Executive Committee and Marat Imankulov has been nominated to the post of Deputy Head of the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center. Also, it has been decided to hold the next 2008 session of the CIS Council of Heads of Government in Minsk.
The session was followed by a joint press-conference, after which the CIS-member States
' heads of government attended an official reception hosted by the President of Turkmenistan.
