OREANDA-NEWS. March 26, 2009. Forty-two projects will be financed from the Union State budget in 2009, Deputy State Secretary of the Union State Sergei Shukhno told mass media on March 26.

The projects will cover various areas, from agriculture and industry to hydrometeorology. Sergei Shukhno emphasized the significance of Union State projects in the area of high technologies: space, super-computer development, nanotechnologies and a project concerning general medicine with the use of stem cells. “The Union State should develop a common scientific potential,” the Deputy State Secretary believes.

As for the measures to counter the consequences of the global crisis, Sergei Shukhno reminded reporters about the plan of anticrisis measures adopted by the Supreme State Council that rules out protectionism. “The major goal of the Union State is the development of the united economic area,” the Deputy State Secretary said.

Sergei Shukhno has also stressed that the formation of the Customs Union is underway. The two sides have recently signed a plan of action in the customs area according to which many points of the customs clearance were shifted from the internal borders of Belarus and Russia to the Union State border.