MOSCOW, 6 December (BelTA) – Belarus expects that the CIS member states will sign the free trade agreement on services in 2020, Belarusian Vice Premier Igor Petrishenko told reporters following the session of the CIS Economic Council in Moscow on 6 December, BelTA has learned.
“We emphasized the need to finish the work on the free trade agreement on services. We urged our partners to advance to the final stage of the work and to finally sign this agreement during Uzbekistan's chairmanship in the CIS [in 2020]. Today my counterpart Djamshid Kuchkarov, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, assured that Uzbekistan will work hard to get the agreement signed,” Igor Petrishenko said.
Djamshid Kuchkarov said at the session that the establishment of the CIS free trade zone in services is part of the efforts to implement Uzbekistan's CIS chairmanship concept. The chairmanship plan features 69 points, including efforts to strengthen the CIS and bolster the CIS reputation, to promote cooperation, to make the most of the transport capacity of the CIS member states, and to scale up cooperation in digital technology. Djamshid Kuchkarov informed that Tashkent will host a session of the CIS Heads of Government Council in May 2020 and a session of the CIS Heads of State Council in October. In addition to that, Uzbekistan will play host to the CIS Foreign Ministers Council and hold sessions of other agencies of the Commonwealth.
