Kazakhstan, Astana, Jan.23 / Trend L.Podolyak /
Trade volume of Kazakhstan with the Customs union's members increased by 43.3 per cent to hit $19.6 billion as of January-October 2011, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov said at his page in Facebook.
"Kazakhstan's entry to the Customs Union gives huge opportunities for the country's economy and is a move toward further economic integration between out countries," Mr Masimov said.
The Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus has operated since 2010. It aims at forming a single customs zone where no duties or economic restrictions are used, except for special protective, antidumping and compensatory measures. Common Economic Space within the Customs Union has started to operate from Jan.1, 2012.
Mr Masimov said entry to the Customs Union gave Kazakhstan an opportunity of nondiscriminatory access to the infrastructure of Belarus and Russia, created favourable conditions for the development of business structures, expanded industrial and economic operations and implementation of joint projects.
"Moreover, frontier cooperation was improved due to minimization of frontier costs and opportunity of forming in the future monetary union on the basis of common monetary unit was created," Mr Masimov said.