TALLINN, 29 May (BelTA) – The Belarusian-Estonian business events contribute to trade growth, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Estonia Anatoly Stepus told BelTA.
In his words, in February 2017 and in February 2018, the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, together with the Minsk Office of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, welcomed delegations of Estonian businessmen. Fairs and sales of Belarusian products were held in Tallinn two times in the past year. The visit of a group of Estonian businessmen to Belarus in August 2017 included the participation in a seminar organized at the National Center for Marketing and Price Study.
In September 2017, Belarus' Transport and Communications Minister Anatoly Sivak met with major Estonian entrepreneurs in Tallinn. The roundtable meeting in October 2017, with the participation of Belarus' First Deputy Prime Minister Vasily Matyushevsky in Tallinn, highlighted possible ways of interaction between Estonian business and the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park Great Stone.
Belarus also attended the fourth Eastern Partnership business forum Digital Economy: Innovative Platform for Transparent Borderless Business which was held in the Estonian capital in October 2017.
In May 2018, a big delegation of Estonian agricultural entrepreneurs (37 people) visited Belarus to discuss cooperation prospects in the agricultural sector.
Anatoly Stepus stressed that all these events proved efficient. In 2017, the trade between Belarus and Estonia reached $112.8 million. Belarusian exports to Estonia totaled $84.6 million, imports - $28.2 million. In January-March 2018, the trade between the two countries exceeded $50 million, up 32% as compared with the same period in 2017. Belarusian exports to Estonia reached $42.95 million (198.2% against Q1 2017), imports - over $7 million (99.2%). Belarus had a foreign trade surplus of $35.86 million.
