MINSK, 23 May (BelTA) – At the beginning of July Belarus and Russia are expected to sign an intergovernmental agreement on mutual access to public procurement contracts, Belarus' Deputy Industry Minister Dmitry Kharitonchik said on the air of the Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA informs.
“We agreed with our Russian colleagues that we need to come up with common rules of the game, and, in fact, this is the task and the goal of the arrangements on developing a common industrial policy. In the end, we should approach the signing of the necessary intergovernmental documents on common principles and criteria of determining ‘a national product' and, accordingly, procurement requirements. These rules should be as unified as possible regardless of the form of procurement: be it a contract with government support or without, or an open competition. We want to participate on an equal footing with our Russian colleagues on the territory of the Russian Federation. Likewise, our Russian partners - product manufacturers - will also be able to participate absolutely on an equal footing with us in all our tenders,” Dmitry Kharitonchik said.
According to the deputy minister, the task is to accomplish everything as quickly as possible. “We are now working to approach the signing of this intergovernmental agreement in the first ten days of July. And then painstaking work will follow to bring the countries' regulatory framework into line with it in order to fully achieve equal rules and equal conditions,” he added.
