Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Karim Massimov: Heads of government, members of the EurAsEC Interstate Council, ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to greet you at this 28th meeting of the EurAsEC Interstate Council. I hereby open the meeting. I would like to wish you all success in this joint work.
On behalf of the delegation heads, I would like to thank Vladimir Putin for his warm welcome and the excellent working conditions. Some developments with important implications for integration have taken place since the previous meeting of the EurAsEC Interstate Council this past May. The treaty on the Customs Union Customs Code was enacted on July 6, international documents on the formation of a common economic space will soon be agreed, and the community adopted a number of significant documents. We have discussed some rather important issues at our narrow format meeting today and agreed in principle on all of them.
Now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will say a few words before we begin.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much, Mr Massimov.
Colleagues and friends, we have held productive and substantive talks in the limited attendance meeting, and now we will continue that work in an extended format. I think I speak for everyone when I say that Eurasian economic community is the undisputed leader of integration in the post-Soviet space. Over its 10-year history, EurAsEC has become a mature and influential regional organisation. Our five countries are successfully promoting joint social and economic initiatives. We also cooperate in the cultural sphere, increasing the tempo and improving the quality of our joint work.
The Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan has grown into the community's centerpiece project. Since its launch, it has already brought tangible benefits to some enterprises and even entire industries, and has accelerated post-crisis economic recovery. The logical next step in the integration process is the formation of a common economic space with a free flow of goods, services, capitals and labour and a coordinated macroeconomic policy. This space should be fully operational as early as 2012.
We also hope that our partners in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will play a more active role in existing and future integration mechanisms. We see that our Ukrainian friends are showing more and more interest in working with us in the formats I've mentioned. We welcome greater Ukrainian involvement in those organisations and their activity. We are ready to do everything necessary to achieve this, relying on our long history of working together and acting in the spirit of partnership. Of course, we will seek out mutually acceptable solutions to any problems.
As for the agenda of today's meeting, it is quite extensive. There are 18 issues. I would like to single out three of them.
The first one is progress in priority fields related to EurAsEC's development. We will consider a series of measures to promote development in the period 2011–2013, and it is important to make these priority areas a road map for our joint efforts.
The second issue is the draft treaty on the EurAsEC court. I think it is extremely important for the community to set up its own special body to resolve disputes – one that can be used by member states and commercial entities, including from outside countries. This will promote stability in the development of trade and economic ties within the community and make our markets more attractive for investments and businesses. I believe that this is one of the main issues to be discussed in our today's work.
And, finally, the third issue concerns the functioning of the EurAsEC High-Tech Centre. I think that we have made good progress on this initiative, for which there is great demand. The centre's supervisory board has already held six meetings since the beginning of the year and has endorsed six innovation projects, which are now being reviewed by experts at the Eurasian Bank for Development and national venture capital funds.
I am sure that the number of such projects will grow considerably in the near future, and that the centre will expand its activities and attract the leading research institutions and businesses from our countries. This work is extremely important for our efforts to modernise and diversify our economies and advance technological development.
Thank you very much.