MINSK, 1 August (BelTA) - The Union State programs should gain a faster pace, Dmitry Krutoi, new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation and concurrently plenipotentiary representative of Belarus to the CIS Economic Council, special representative for integration cooperation in the Union State, the EAEU, the CIS, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, told the media in Minsk on 1 August, BelTA has learned.
He stressed that Belarus and Russia are implementing 28 Union State programs. "They envisage 980 various events and measures. The monitoring system shows that they have been completed at 35% so far. The presidents of Belarus and Russia are not happy with such dynamics ," he said.
Since the goal is to have an almost full-fledged common economic space of Belarus and Russia within the framework of the Union State by 1 January 2024, the pace of the programs should be faster.
Dmitry Krutoi explained: "The first is a unified industrial and agrarian policy. The second is the unified regulation of the transport market. In the context of sanctions, broken logistics, the restructuring of all Belarusian commodity flows, the use of a leftover principle in terms of railway routes, containers, especially transit ones, is unacceptable. Such problems should be solved instantly. A completely barrier-free environment should be created in the transport market of our countries."
The third is the unified energy markets. "It is clear that this is a very important topic for our countries. Great progress has been made on this front, including in terms of transition to settlements in national currencies for both oil and gas," Dmitry Krutoi continued.
“Then is the topic of the payment system. The president noted that in the context of sanctions there are problems with payments. They are now, of course, being resolved. But the speedy transition to settlements in national currencies both in terms of price formation and in terms of payments is an issue that I will oversee while in Moscow."
Dmitry Krutoi also touched upon transport projects. This is about seaports, possibly individual terminals for Belarusian cargo, the topic of high-speed railways."As Aleksandr Lukashenko said, this is something that will perhaps yield a greater effect than the agreements on oil and gas. He also said that if people could get from Minsk to Moscow in 2-2.5 hours, everyone would also feel it at once. Therefore, there is a need to take a closer look into the major projects that are now on pause to get them going," Dmitry Krutoi noted.
There are great prospects in the construction market too. According to Dmitry Krutoi, at present there is no unified system of entry for Belarusian construction company to the Russian market. It will have to be developed.
