Tajikistan’s acting Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov will attend a session of the CIS Council of Heads of Government that will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia on November 20.

Subhiddin Muhiddinov, a senior consultant to the Tajik president’s press center, says the session’s agenda includes more than twenty issues related to different aspects of integration within the CIS.

According to Belarus news agency, BelTA, one of the key issues will be the draft plan of preparations for and celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

The meeting participants will also discuss the protocol amending the agreement on the origin of goods in the CIS as of November 20, 2009, the strategy for the development of cooperation in the CIS in tourism up to 2020, the concept of cooperation of the CIS countries in renewable energy and the priority action plan for its implementation, agreements on cooperation among the CIS member states in information security.

The heads of government are also scheduled to discuss the concept of formation and development of the interstate system of training, retraining and enhancement of professional qualifications of the staff in the field of scientific and technical information, the new edition of the common methodology of customs statistics of foreign trade of CIS countries, a plan of action for 2014-2015 to implement the strategy of international youth cooperation in the CIS area until 2020, the concept of development of the unified system of state radar recognition.

The meeting will discuss the status of implementation of the free trade agreement as of October 18, 2011, will exchange views on the adjustment of the energy production and consumption projections in the CIS member states up to 2020, review the activities of the CIS Council on Cooperation in Healthcare, a project to establish permanent exhibitions of the CIS countries at the All-Russian Exhibition Center in Moscow, the progress in the implementation of the interstate radio-navigation program, and in the project to switch the Mir interstate TV Company to modern digital and multimedia technologies.

The heads of government are expected to approve the continuation of the program for the search for soldiers who went missing during the war in Afghanistan in 1979-1989, the search of burial places, exhumation, identification of the remains and reburial in the homeland.

The CIS Council of Heads of Government was established on December 21, 1991.  The council is the second major body in the CIS after the CIS Council of Heads of State, and consists of the prime ministers of all member states.  The council coordinates the CIS member states' cooperation in economic, social and other areas of their common interests, and adopts corresponding decisions through consensus.  The CIS Council of Heads of Government convenes twice a year, normally in winter and autumn.  Extraordinary meetings are summoned on the initiative of the government of a member state.

Established on December 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization.  It now consists of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.  Georgia pulled out of the organization in 2009.