Wednesday, 15 September 2004
Today a session of the Council of Heads of Governments of CIS-member States was held in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. RA Prime Minister A. Margaryan attended the session, which was chaired by Vasily Tarlev, Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova. Before opening the session, the heads of governments of CIS-member States honored in silence the memory of the victims of the terrorist act committed in Beslan town of Russian Federation. Danial Akhmetov, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, the host country, greeted those present and expressed the hope that the friendly atmosphere of the session would help the heads of governments find efficacious solutions to all of the agenda items. Then he wished every success to all the participants. At the beginning of the session, Prime Ministers congratulated Vladimir Rushailo on his appointment as Chairman and Executive Secretary of the CIS Executive Committee.
In accordance with the session agenda, the heads of governments discussed a number of issues concerning the activities of the Bureau for the Coordination of the Struggle Against Organized Crime and Other Dangerous Offences On The Territory of CIS-member States and approved the report on recent activities carried out by the Bureau. It was decided to set up a regional operative task force within the Unit of the Bureau, which coordinates the fight against illegal traffic of narcotic drugs and precursors in the Central Asian Region.
Special focus was placed on economic issues. In particular, as recommended by Leonid Kuchma, President of Ukraine and Chairman of the Council of Heads of Governments of CIS-member States, and proposed by the CIS Executive Committee, the Prime Ministers examined those factors affecting adversely multilateral economic and commercial cooperation within the CIS framework. It was also decided to furnish the Economic Council of the Commonwealth with the authority of taking final decisions upon drafts of various documents on behalf of the Council of Heads of Governments of CIS-member States, including the instruments of approval of the amendments to the rules established for the identification of the country of origin of imported goods and eventual changes to the Statuts of the Coordinating Council of Heads of CIS-member States' Tax Services, as well as documents relating to the statuts of the Interstate Council for the Coordination of Scientific and Technical Affairs, to the establishment of the Council of Heads of CIS-member States' National Record Offices and a consultative council of heads of public (executive) bodies providing for the management of national material resources in CIS-member countries, to the liquidation of the Council of Heads of CIS-member States
