State Secretary of the Union between Belarus and Russia suggests concentration Union State Council of Ministers’ attention on agriculture support

Pavel Borodin, State secretary of the Union State, believes that at the Union Government meeting scheduled for March 21st special consideration should be given to the issue of agriculture backing in Belarus and Russia.

Pavel Borodin, State secretary of the Union State, believes that at the Union Government meeting scheduled for March 21^st special consideration should be given to the issue of agriculture backing in Belarus and Russia.

“We would like Union Cabinet Council to examine this question thoroughly and rigorously,” said P.Borodin to the journalists on the eve of the meeting with Sergey Sidorski, Prime Minister of Belarus. He also noted that the level of agriculture support, particularly in Russia, is intolerably low. “Subsidies provided for the USA agriculture amount to $65 billion, in the EU - $124 billion including $42 billion from EU budget, in Russia - $170 million,” specified P.Borodin.

He also believes that at the Union Cabinet Council much attention should be devoted to joint motor car construction. According to the State Secretary, if the programme “Diesel motor car construction – 3” is successfully implemented, Belarus and Russia work up 75-80% of diesel-powered vehicle market on the postsoviet area. This programme financing should come to RUB100 billion.

As P.Borodin noted, besides that it is planned to examine the issue of common communications market, supply of energy resources and price policy. He also stressed that in the near future the transition to world gas prices will become the reality for internal Russian consumers as well.

Later, in the course of the meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister, Pavel Borodin suggested “making summits more union-like”. “It is impossible to understand why some issues are discussed at biletaral meetings, while others – at the meetings within union organizations,” noted P.Borodin.

The Head of Belarusian government, for his part, supported the suggestion of P.Borodin to concentrate the attention on agriculture issues and on agricultural production supply balance in particular.