OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2007. Belarus and Russia need to create the joint boards of some ministries and governmental departments, State Secretary of the Union State Pavel Borodin said when meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky, reported the Official website www.government.by. 

“We need to create the boards for agriculture issues, trade and economic cooperation. This would facilitate settling some issues, enhance the responsibility for implementing the decisions,” Pavel Borodin said.

A session of the Union State Council of Ministers will be held in Moscow on December 26. A set of economic issues relating to the cooperation of the two countries in customs sphere, energy supplies and monetary policy will be high on the agenda of the forthcoming session. According to Pavel Borodin, on December 20, the agreement on Russia’s $1.5 billion loan to Belarus was signed in Moscow. “I think that the matter will concern another loan worth of $2-3 billion,” he said.

The sides will discuss subsidies in agriculture in the Union State. According to Pavel Borodin, this issue is pressing. “We should clearly understand that Russia imports 50% of foodstuffs. The agricultural industry is subsidized everywhere as it is one of the pillars of state security,” Pavel Borodin noted.

Moreover, several new Union State industrial programmes are expected to be considered as well.