OREANDA-NEWS. June 10, 2008. President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, took part in an informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg, reported the Official website http://president.gov.by.

Attending the summit were all 12 presidents of the CIS member states.

The presidents exchanged their opinions regarding the draft CIS Economic Development Strategy until 2020, interaction in the sphere of transport, cooperation in the energy sector. The heads of state also discussed humanitarian issues and the main avenues of further development of the Commonwealth.

The CIS summit meeting in October 2007 in Dushanbe approved the CIS Development Concept and the plan of main actions to fulfil it. The plan provides for adopting a CIS development strategy in 2008.

Belarus believes completing the creation of a free trading zone within the CIS is vital for the CIS economic development today.

It is planned to dedicate the year 2009 to energy issues. The Belarusian side deems it possible to develop brand new projects within the CIS framework for transporting energy resources, using cost-efficient and accessible alternative energy sources, including bio-fuel.

Belarus proposes to intensify research in the area of small nuclear power engineering.

In 2008 the CIS member states have been focusing on addressing transport-related issues in line with the thesis “one year – one issue resolved”. The programme of Belarus’ chairmanship in the CIS Council of the Heads of State provides for identification of priority cooperation areas in transport for the period until 2020.

The Belarusian side believes that this year there is a need for developing an effective scheme of interaction in transport, launch large-scale projects to create new transport corridors. There is a need for building effective interaction between the CIS customs and border services, identifying transport corridors, seaports, locations of transport and logistic centres that are strategically important for the entire CIS region. These projects should receive priority financing, Belarus says.

The next CIS summit is expected to take place in autumn 2008 in Bishkek.

In the evening, the CIS heads of state had a working dinner in Peterhof.