ASHGABAT (TASS) — Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has stated that it is necessary to cut trade barriers to boost multilateral economic cooperation within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Kazakh president’s press service reported following Tokayev’s speech at a session of the Council of the CIS Heads of State in Ashgabat on Friday.

Tokayev named the development of trade and economic collaboration as one of the CIS’ priorities:

The creation of the CIS free trade zone in 2011 improved conditions for the trade turnover between our countries. Still, further extension of trade cooperation requires continuation of work to decrease the existing barriers. We need new points of growth that would galvanize economic cooperation in the Commonwealth.

He singled out a number of promising areas for joint work, including digital technologies, e-commerce, free trade in services and tourism.