OREANDA-NEWS. March 23, 2009. The finance ministries of Belarus and Russia will discuss anticrisis measures at a joint board session in Minsk on March 20, said Vice Prime Minister of Russia, Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin as he met with Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky.

The session will pay peculiar attention to discussing the status of the crisis, its influence on the economies of Belarus and Russia as well as anticrisis measures, which have been developed already by various countries and which have been tested in both the countries.

“Russia is getting ready for participation in the G20 in London on April 2. The presidents of Belarus and Russia discussed these matters yesterday. I have also met with Finance Minister Andrei Kharkovets. The presidents gave an instruction to once again consider all directions of the credit and debt policies between our countries, to inventory our capabilities anew, to define medium-term strategies,” said Aleksei Kudrin.

During the session the fulfilment of the Belarusian-Russian joint plan of actions aimed at minimising consequences of the financial crisis will be considered. “We have to prepare the agreement on expanding the use of our national currencies in the mutual trade for April. We will also have to discuss it at the board session because the document has to be ready for April,” added the Russian Finance Minister.

Apart from that, the joint session of the boards of the Belarusian and Russian finance ministries will touch upon the formation and execution of the Union State budget. The discussion will have to address the goal of raising the effectiveness of using budget money.

All in all, over 30 people have travelled from Russia to participate in the board session. Among them are deputy finance ministers of Russia, heads of departments. It is these people that have been shaping the main financial strategy for the last eight years and in the crisis conditions now, remarked Aleksei Kudrin.