Minsk to host meeting of CIS finance ministers in 2013

MINSK, 12 December (BelTA) – A regular meeting of the finance ministers of the CIS member states will be held in Minsk in 2013, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee - CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev told reporters on 12 December, BelTA has learnt.

“The preparation for the meeting is underway,” Sergei Lebedev informed. This is a regular meeting, which was held in 2008 for the first time. The CIS Executive Secretary noted that over this time the CIS member states have minimized the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis. “This year the economies of all the CIS member states have been on the rise. We reversed the economic decline of 2009-2010 to achieve economic growth in 2011-2012,” Sergei Lebedev said. He informed that the trade between the CIS member states has been expanding. “These are positive trends and I really hope that they will not lose momentum,” he said.

Sergei Lebedev emphasized that the agreement regulating currency, financial and economic relations adopted recently by the CIS heads of state and heads of government “are designed to prevent crises, or respond to them as fast as possible and efficiently eliminate their consequences”.

Sergei Lebedev is taking part in the session of the Council of Permanent Plenipotentiary Representatives of the CIS at the charter and other bodies of the Commonwealth. The first point on the agenda of the session deals with the sessions of the CIS Ministerial Council and the CIS Council of Heads of State that were held in Ashgabat on 4-5 December. The plenipotentiary representatives will review the results of the sessions and discuss implementation of the decisions made at these sessions by the Council of Permanent Plenipotentiary Representatives of the CIS and the CIS Executive Committee. The plenipotentiary representatives will also review the activities of their Council in 2012.