MINSK, 15 November (BelTA) – Finland is interested in the Belarusian experience of building wooden houses. The matter was discussed as Chairman of the Belarusian timber, woodworking, pulp and paper industry concern Bellesbumprom Yuri Nazarov met with a delegation of Finland's South Savo Province, the Bellesbumprom press service told BelTA.
The negotiations focused on advancing Belarus-Finland cooperation and preparations for a Belarusian-Finnish economic forum scheduled to take place in Borisov, Minsk Oblast in May 2020. The previous forum took place in South Savo in 2017. Top officials of the province's administration are taking part in preparations for the forum in Belarus. Chairman of the South Savo Regional Government Jarkko Wuorinen noted that the purpose of the visit to Belarus is to get a closer look at the country, hold meetings and negotiations in order to determine possible avenues of cooperation in order to discuss concrete matters and projects during the forum later on.
The Bellesbumprom chairman is the head of the Belarusian part of the forum's organizing committee. Yuri Nazarov stressed that such forums should be geared towards achieving practical results. It is important for its participants – representatives of Belarusian companies and Finnish ones – to find real contact points and start working together.
Yuri Nazarov pointed out that Belarus and Finland are some of the most heavily forested countries in Europe. In both countries forests are important for economy and for preserving the environmental balance. Forests are the key natural resource for Belarusians and Finns. With these resources, Belarus and Finland actively develop their woodworking industries. Woodworking in Finland is a most effective and vast industry. Finland accounts for over 10% of the world's timber industry's export. Finland accounts for one fifth of the world's total export of printing paper. All the forest resources in Finland are processed locally.
Belarus follows the same path. In line with the relevant presidential decree no raw wood is exported. New woodworking facilities have been built in Belarus to process raw wood. “The Belarusian woodworking industry is interested in the experience of Finnish companies with regard to innovative technologies and retooling,” the Bellesbumprom press service noted.
In turn, Jarkko Wuorinen noted Finland is interested in the Belarusian experience of building wooden houses. He said that many ecological projects are being implemented in Finland, in particular, the construction of multistory wooden houses is under consideration. Belarus and Finland could work on it together. Apart from that, there is a strong interest in the Belarusian wood chemical industry as well as environmental tourism, hunting, and miscellaneous forest uses. The sides could also cooperate in education and research with regard to the timber industry.
The head of the Finnish delegation underlined that green economy will be a very topical theme during the forthcoming forum. It should be the key one since environmental protection is a pressing problem in all countries.
Yuri Nazarov backed these proposals. He stressed that as far as green economy is concerned, Belarus and Finland follow the same path. This is why fruitful and multilateral cooperation should be promoted on the basis of common interests.
The sides agreed that taking into account the proposals they had discussed they are going to gradually form the forum's agenda and the entry list. Apart from a plenary session the forum will feature a business matchmaking session and B2B meetings.
