“Moldova remains a fully-fledged member of the Commonwealth of Independent States and we hope the cooperation within this organization will help develop mutually advantageous economic relations,” Moldova's Acting President Mihai Ghimpu said at the opening of the extended-format meeting of the CIS Heads of State Council in Chisinau on Friday. The meeting was preceded by closed-door discussions that lasted for about two hours. “Economy is a wide field for join activity in the interests of the peoples of our countries. Though we had to experience the Communist regime, nobody can ignore the fact that we have a lot in common,”Ghimpu said, adding: “I hope that together we will manage to overcome the world economic crisis and will build democratic states of law.” Sergei Lebedev, the chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, said the closed-door discussions centered mainly on measures aimed at coping with the crisis. A relevant document was signed at the end of the discussions. He reminded that Russia will hold the presidency of the CIS from January 1, 2010 and said the Russian president invited his counterparts from the CIS to an informal meeting in Moscow in May.