Despite the enormous external pressure, the CIS economies got back on growth track, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said at a meeting of the CIS Heads of Government Council in Moscow on 18 December.

"It is pleasant to note that in 2023 all our countries were back on the growth track, despite the colossal external pressure exerted on a number of CIS states," Roman Golovchenko said.

He cited some data to confirm: In January-September 2023 the GDP of the CIS member states rose by more than 2% year-on-year, industrial output - by 3.4%, cargo transportation - by almost 6%, retail - by 5%.

"These are good indicators that we need to beat next year," the Prime Minister noted.

He suggested that the CIS countries work more actively to remove obstacles to mutual trade, to liberalize the services sector and to implement the appropriate CIS agreement, and to attract investment.

It is important for the CIS countries to move forward synchronously and produce competitive goods jointly, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said at a meeting of the CIS Heads of Government Council.

"Manufacturing high-tech products superior to foreign analogues is the goal for all our countries. It is important to move forward synchronously and produce competitive goods jointly. We already have many examples of such effective interaction,but we need to scale them up more actively," Roman Golovchenko emphasized.

He urged, among other things, to tap into the practices that have proved effective in the EAEU and the Union State. The Prime Minister recalled that a cooperation project to create a Eurasian e-bus is currently in the active stage of development in the EAEU. Decisions were made on the appropriate interstate program and the procedure for financing such projects.

"I am confident that we should implement such end-to-end integration projects in the CIS, making full use of the joint scientific, technological and financial potential of our countries. This also applies to e-commerce, digital technologies, access to public procurement, telephone tariffs in roaming," the Prime Minister of Belarus said.

Photo: BelTA