In 2024, specialists from the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia worked more than half a hundred agreements of the State authorities of the Russian regions on the implementation of international and external economic relations with the CIS countries. These agreements have contributed significantly to the development of the regulatory framework for interregional cooperation among CIS countries.

The Deputy Minister for Economic Development of Russia, Dmitri Volvac, spoke during the thirteenth meeting of the CIS Interregional and Border Cooperation Council, which was held in videoconferencing.

" Our economic cooperation is well advanced. The share of CIS countries in Russia ' s trade continues to increase. In the first half of 2024, it was 16 per cent, bringing Dmitri Volvac data. Russia ' s trade with CIS countries increased by 6.7% in six months of 2024, compared with the same period last year. Exports increased by 14.8%. In the longer term, the scope of mutual trade will continue to grow. By 2030, trade with CIS countries is estimated to increase by 1.5 times. "

Interregional forums and conferences continued to be the most useful instrument for developing interregional and border cooperation among CIS countries.

In 2024, five interregional forum events were organized with the Commonwealth countries, with the participation of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia: the 12th Russian-Azerbaijan Interregional Forum, the International Industrial Exhibition INNOPROm Central Asia, the First Council of the Regions of Russia and Uzbekistan, the Forum of the Regions of Russia and Belarus, and the 11th Russian-Kyrgyz Interregional Conference. More than 50 regions of Russia and more than 30 regions from CIS countries participated. More than 300 cooperation and commercial agreements were signed in the forums.

" It is important that the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia continuously coordinates the work on the external economic relations of the regions, promotes the interests of the external economic relations of representatives of the business community and local authorities, helps regions to identify and promote project initiatives, makes regional interactions with foreign partners more effective " , noted by Dmitri Volvac.

In addition to bilateral formats, Russian regions, he said, were also involved in multilateral areas of cooperation. For example, the Forum of Heads of SCO Regions was recently held in Omsk, with over 500 participants. Delegations from 15 Russian regions and 10 countries of the world came to the forum. In 2025, such a forum was decided for CIS countries. The first Forum of CIS Regions will be held in Uzbekistan in the coming year.

" Humanitarian, cultural and scientific cooperation plays an equally important role in the CIS regions. On an ongoing basis, we maintain mutual contacts between our research institutes. In the field of education, cooperation between general secondary, vocational, technical and secondary special and higher education institutions has been successfully implemented; Dmitri Volvac noted. - At the end of 2023, more than 200,000 people from CIS countries were enrolled in higher education programmes in Russian universities and in 36 branches of Russian educational organizations in the Commonwealth. "

The meeting discussed the updating of the action plan for the implementation of the CIS Interregional and Border Cooperation Concept for the period up to 2030, as well as the implementation of the first phase of the Commonwealth Economic Development Strategy 2030 on interregional and border cooperation.

Following the meeting, the participants unanimously decided on the chairmanship of the CIS countries in the Council of the Russian Federation in 2025 and voted in favour of the election of Dmitri Volvac as President of the Council.

Source: www.economy.com

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