OREANDA-NEWS. February 03, 2010. Russia must carefully adjust domestic legislation in the process of setting up the Customs Union and a common economic space (CEC), Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a session on customs regulation issues on Tuesday.

Minister Vladimir Putin said at a session on customs regulation issues on Tuesday.

“We must move carefully, stage-by-stage, adjusting domestic legislation to goals we are setting,” he stressed. The prime minister also demanded “due order” on the outer borders. “The appearance of any kinds of ‘grey zones’ which unscrupulous dealers, entrepreneurs could make use of, must be absolutely ruled out,” the prime minister noted.

According to Putin, “honest participants in the foreign-economic activity must feel real advantages of integration”. “This is all the more important as we have set a goal to launch a common economic space starting from January 1, 2012, and this is an even deeper level of integration,” the prime minister noted.

He believes “the territory with the population of 170 million people can quite possibly become the global centre of attraction of capital and high technologies”.

Putin said the Customs Code must enter into force in July and stressed a need for closer coordination of the participants in the Customs Union. “A serious approach to the development of our relations with partners is needed, and our state agencies must know how to coordinate their positions and timely make necessary decisions,” he is sure.

All deputies to the prime minister and ministers of the economic bloc were invited to the session. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Zubkov, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, Minister for Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko and Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said.

“The topicality of this issue has become even more obvious in connection with the fact that in 2009 within a rather short period of time settled the task of setting up the Customs Union with our main trade and economic partners – Belarus and Kazakhstan,” Putin stressed.