Sixth Meeting of Russia-OECD Liaison Committee in Moscow

Unofficial translation from Russian

PRESS RELEASE

On June 20, the sixth meeting of the Liaison Committee between Russia and the OECD was held in Moscow under the chairmanship of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Donald Johnston.

The Minister, in his remarks, noted that over the years of engagement between Russia and the OECD considerable successes have been achieved, enabling establishing a high political level of dialogue with the Organization and devising an effective mechanism of cooperation. The government of the Russian Federation regards the deepening of the dialogue with, and entry into the OECD as an important priority of its activity.

Sergey Lavrov also stressed that Russia attaches great importance to the successful implementation of the Cooperation Program between Russia and the OECD, which would be a determining stage in the process of the deepening of our engagement. Russia's top priorities, said the Minister, emphasize drawing upon the Organization's rich experience in the areas of the streamlining of antimonopoly and tax legislation, attraction of foreign investment, privatization, banking sector reform, the solution of state governance and regulation problems, market transformations in agriculture, and the reformation of natural monopolies.

The sides noted the successful development of collaboration by Russia with the Organization, and outlined the prospects for its further deepening and expansion. In particular, they discussed the Russian Federation-OECD Cooperation Program for the years 2005 to 2006, which calls for Russia's intensified participation in the activities of the OECD and of its working bodies in all key areas.

June 20, 2005