OREANDA-NEWS. On May 23, 2008 Heads of government of all the 12 CIS states partakes in the Minsk session of the CIS Heads of Government Council (CIS HGC), Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky said as he met with Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Umirzak Shukeyev, reported the Official website www.government.by.

“We have a confirmation that all the heads of government of all the 12 CIS states will take part in the session of the Heads of Government Council in Minsk,” said Sergei Sidorsky.

He remarked, several initiatives concerning the CIS economic development strategy will be put forward. These initiatives may and should be implemented in the Commonwealth. They are mainly related to transport infrastructure, intellectual property and the CIS development as a whole.

Sergei Sidorsky expressed hope the forthcoming session will be another step in further productive development of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Umirzak Shukeyev underscored, Kazakhstan supports all issues on the session’s agenda. “All the issues are topical and meet interests of our economies. I think we will take a productive view on them,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.

The session of the CIS Heads of Government Council is supposed to table 20 issues. The key discussions will be centred on the fulfilment of instructions issued by the Heads of State Council session, which was held on October 5, 2007, and the session of the Heads of Government Council concerning the development of a draft CIS economic development strategy. There are also plans to consider proposals concerning coordinated transport policies and joint measures aimed at improving the CIS food security.

The forthcoming session will also table a draft plan of actions aimed at preparing celebrations of the 65th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. In view of that several documents will be discussed, in particular, introduction of changes and amendments to the agreement on mutual recognition of the privileged passage right for Great Patriotic War veterans and disabled. Several countries will be interested in discussing the convention on the legal status of labour migrants and their families in the CIS states. Other issues will be talked over as well.

Kazakhstan sees new promising areas of cooperation with Belarus, Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Umirzak Shukeev said at a meeting with Prime Minsiter of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky in Minsk.

“At a session of the joint intergovernmental commission we discussed the areas we can cooperate effectively in. These are farm machine construction, petrochemical industry (potash fertilizer), food industry (sugar). I think we can identify new areas of cooperation and move forward,” Umirzak Shukeev said.

The Vice-Premier of Kazakhstan also expressed the confidence that the sides will be able to make maximum use of these bilateral relations.

In 2007 the trade of Belarus and Kazakhstan amounted to \\$513 million, up 53,7% over 2006. Exports reached \\$361,3 million (up 39,3%), import \\$151,7 million (up two times). Belarus had a trade surplus of \\$209,5 million.

In January-March 2008 the trade was down 5,3% over the same period last year to \\$104,4 million. Export was down 4,3% to \\$67,5 million. Belarus had a trade surplus of \\$30,6 million.

Such goods as trucks, tractors, sugar, milk, condensed and dried milk cream, furniture take about a half of the cost volume of the Belarusian exports to Kazakhstan. Moreover, Belarus supplies a significant volume of road equipment, lifting equipment, consumer equipment, trailers and semitrailers, wood products to Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan’s main exports to Belarus are flat-rolled products, wheat, cotton, zinc, electrical accumulators.

The Republic of Kazakhstan is one of the priority trading and economic partners of the Republic of Belarus in the CIS. Belarus is interested in Kazakhstan as the biggest and rapidly developing country in Central Asia which has significant oil and gas reserves, a good payable market and also the country which has a significant influence in the region.

The bilateral trade slowed down in 2008 because of the consequences of the banking crisis in Kazakhstan in 2007. The problems dealing with crediting the Kazakh importers reduce their possibilities to purchase Belarusian goods. The Kazakh imports also fell because of reduction of the wheat supplies.

The two sides set up the Intergovernmental Belarusian-Kazakh Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation. The 4th session of the commission was held in Minsk in June 2007. The joint Belarusian-Kazakh working group on cooperation in energy area was set up within the framework of the commission. The 1st session of the working group was held in January 2008.