Customs Union offers govt services options - official

ASTANA, May 4 (Itar-Tass) - The director of the department for
economic cooperation and CIS integration, Ministry of Economic
Development, Andrei Tochin said the Customs Union and the Common Economic
Space (CES) increase business opportunities and create stimuli for
perfecting the quality of government services.
Tochin made the statement during a "round table" discussion of
regional integration issues within the framework of the 4th economic forum
in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Secretary General of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEc) Tair
Mansurov said "trade turnover between Customs Union members increased by
21 percent to 88.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2010 compared with 2009,
according to the CIS statistics committee."
"We had a rather dramatic increase in mutual trade, which began from
mid-December 2010, and continues up to date," Tochin said, noting that the
effect from the Customs Union operation is explained not only by an
increase in trade.
"We hold consultations with representatives of the Russian business
community over the Customs Union, six months after the cancellation of
customs registration on the internal borders of the Customs Union. We more
often hear business persons' remarks that they now have more
opportunities, along with the opportunity to select the quality of this or
that government service," he said.
"Admittedly, many complain of serious administrative barriers in
customs registration in Russia. These barriers are lower than in Belarus
and Kazakhstan," Tochin underlined.
The Customs Union is a stimulus to perfect state functions, creating
opportunities for economic development.
Expanding uniform regulation of a large number of sectors in the
economies will open still broader opportunities in this respect, the
official noted.