Interaction between the Interstate Councils on competition and communications will raise economic cooperation to a new level
Deputy Head of FAS Anatoly Golomolzin who chairs the Headquarters on Joint Antimonopoly Investigations in the CIS made this statement after signing the Memorandum of Understanding between the Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy (ICAP) and the Regional Communications Commonwealth.
The event took place on 18 April 2017 at a Joint 52nd session of the Council of the Heads of Communications Authorities ofthe Regional Communications Commonwealth (RCC) and the 23rd session of RCC Steering Council of the CIS member-sates on informatisation.
“ICAP and RCC have established good cooperation on the issues of developing the markets of communications and information technologies, international roaming. The work under the frame of the memorandum will enable new quality in view of the pressing agenda of digital economy”, pointed out Anatoly Golomolzin.
The joint session looked at the following items:
- Interaction between RCC and international and regional organizations
- Compiling and using informational resources
- Drafting proposals on the basic principles and the mechanisms to form digital markets for RCC member-states
- The ways of Internetization in RCC countries
- On the progress in III Stage measures of the Action Plan (2016 — 2020) of the CIS Economic Development Strategy until 2020, etc.
During the same days, Minsk also hosted the XXIV International Specialized Forum on Telecommunications, Informational and Banking Technologies “TIBO-2017”. Its exhibition focused on innovative sectoral development, companies from many corners of the world demonstrated projects of the near and distant future.
Anatoly Golomolzin informed the parties about the results of a field visit the previous day, together with General Director of “Beltelecom”, S. Siviedov, to some telephony and informational facilities in the rural area.
“The level of landline telephony in the rural areas exceeds 100%, penetration of digital TV and broadband Internet reaches around 50 - 60%. In this regard, Belarus is on the leading position not only in the CIS but also in Europe. Both in the rural and urban areas, “Beltelecom” provides “Smart Home” services: digitalization and automating household and social activities in the residential segment. In 2016 “Beltelecom” equipped 5000 “smart” houses / apartments, in 2017 already 15,000 “smart” houses / apartments will be equipped”, pointed out Anatoly Golomolzin.
Deputy Head of FASalso discussedexchange trading in Belarus and Russia with MART Deputy Minister I. Fomin and First Deputy Head of Belarus Exchange, O. Yakubovich.
The parties were informed about the experience of the Exchange Committee, formed in the Russian Federation by FAS, the Bank of Russia and the Federal Tax Service with involvement of the interested persons. Practical issues of exchange trading and its development in Russia were discussed, as well as participation of Belarus companies in exchange trading with oil products and natural gas.
Discussing the latter item, joint initiatives on establishing EAEU Common Exchange Space were outlined and some aspects of developing exchange trade with oil, oil products, natural gas, coal, cement, timber and grain were considered in more detail. Attention was given to specific mechanisms of cooperation towards developing exchange trading and general areas of cooperation.