DUSHANBE, 20.10.2017. /NIAT «Khovar»/. The 23rd meeting of the Council of heads of CIS state news agencies hosted in October 16 on the margins of the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students in the Russian city of Sochi. A day earlier, the Council’s members participated in the opening ceremony of the festival that was held in the Grand Ice Palace, where the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin delivered a welcoming speech to the participants and guests of the World Forum, which gathered about 25,000 students and youth from 150 countries, including Tajikistan.

The meeting of the Council of heads of CIS state news agencies, which was held in the media center of Sochi Olympic Complex, had been opened by the Chairman of the Council, TASS General Director Sergey Mikhailov. He noted that 2018 year in the CIS was declared the Year of Culture, and in this regard it would be desirable to create an interactive map of CIS cultural values ​​that can be updated and, if necessary, to attract new participants. “Now in the CIS countries there is a certain lack of information of an applied nature in the field of culture. We can substantially reduce it”, — he said.

According to the agenda of the meeting, Director of “KazInform” news agency (Kazakhstan) Askar Umarov told about “KazInform” activity. Director General of the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) Dmitry Zhuk briefed the members of the Council about the functioning of interagency news informer and actual issues of development of partnership cooperation. The Executive Director of the “Armenpress” news agency Aram Ananyan told about the work on modernizing the agency’s photo service.

The members of the Council also heard the information of Alexander Zavarzin, Director of the Information and Analytical Department of the CIS Executive Committee, about the implementation of the decision of the Council of CIS heads of state on adapting the CIS to modern realities and other issues related to the development of the Commonwealth, as well as the information of the Head of the CIS and Baltic States Department at TASS Boris Grushin on the implementation of the CIS Information Council’s projects.

The Director of the National Information Agency “Khovar” (Tajikistan) Saidali Siddiq in his speech reminded the Council members about the recent summit of CIS heads of state that also took place in Sochi and in which the CIS chairmanship in 2018 was given to the Republic of Tajikistan. He said that in this summit, the Founder of Peace and National Unity — Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan His Excellency Emomali Rahmon, expressing gratitude for this decision, informed that the Concept of the Chairmanship of Tajikistan and the Plan for its implementation have already been developed. Director of NIAT “Khovar” called on the participants of the Council’s meeting when preparing projects and plans for the next year to pay special attention to the priorities that are outlined in this Concept.

“Our President spoke about them in detail during his speech at the summit of the heads of CIS states, — S. Siddiq said. – They are, first of all, the Action Plan for the implementation of the third stage of the CIS Economic Development Strategy for the period up to 2020, cooperation in the field of energy, development of renewable energy sources, interaction of our countries in the field of cargo transit, road and rail transport, activities aimed at promoting issues of food security, development of cooperation in the field of social, labor and migration relations, coordination of action in the field of science, education, culture, health and information, work with youth, development of cooperation in the field of physical culture and sports, expansion of tourist relations, environmental improvement and prevention of emergencies”.

This proposal was approved by the members of the Council. In the continuation of this theme, the Council Chairman, TASS General Director S. Mikhailov and his first deputy Mikhail Gusman, expressing hope for the successful holding of the chairmanship of Tajikistan in the CIS in 2018, noted the great contribution of the President of the Republic of Tajikistan His Excellency Emomali Rahmon in the strengthening and development of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The first deputy head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, chairman of the Organizing Committee of the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students Sergey Kirienko took part and made a speech in the meeting of the Council of heads of CIS state news agencies.

We will recall that the Council of heads of CIS state news agencies was formed by the decision of the heads of government of the CIS countries in November 1995. It includes the heads of state news agencies of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Tajikistan. The activity of the CIS Information Council is aimed at ensuring the interaction and cooperation of the CIS countries in the information sphere, creating favorable conditions for the unhindered dissemination of information and effective exchange of professional experience, as well as strengthening media partnership.