Kyrgyzstan needs at least 6 months to fulfill Customs Union accession roadmap - minister
BISHKEK. May 26 (Interfax) - Two Kyrgyz parliamentary committees have approved a roadmap of Kyrgyzstan's accession to the Customs Union, Kyrgyz Economy Minister Temir Sariev told Interfax on Monday.
The Budget and Finance Committee, the leading parliament body dealing with economic issues, supported the roadmap drawn up by the Kyrgyz government in collaboration with the Eurasian Economic Committee and planned to be signed [in Astana on May 29], he said.
Meanwhile, the International Affairs Committee permitted the issue of a roadmap implementation pledge.
The document pledging Kyrgyzstan's fulfillment of the roadmap will be signed by President Almazbek Atambayev after it gains approval of the Eurasian Economic Commission.
"By endorsing this roadmap and making the relevant statement, we commit to reconcile with Customs Union requirements our normative legal documents regarding preferences, benefits, timeframes and special regimes we will need. All that will be envisaged by the treaty on Kyrgyzstan's accession to the union," the minister said.
It will take Kyrgyzstan "at least six months" to implement the roadmap and the republic will be able to sign the treaty of accession to the Customs Union after that, he noted.
Before the roadmap is approved on May 29, Kyrgyzstan expects to sign bilateral agreements with the Russian Federation which will cushion the accession risks, Sariev said.
The Kyrgyz constitution binds the parliament or its applicable committees and factions to approve or acknowledge foreign political decisions related to the signing of interstate documents or affiliation to unions. Kyrgyzstan announced its aspiration to enter into the Customs Union in 2011.
