BREST, 11 April (BelTA) – Plans have been made to open a Belarusian trading house in Irkutsk in October, BelTA learned from Yevgeny Balashov, Deputy Chairman of the Irkutsk Oblast Government, during the 4th international B2B contact fair Brest 2019 on 11 April.
The official said: “We are building a Belarusian trading house. I hope it will be opened during the visit of a Belarusian delegation led by Brest Oblast Governor Anatoly Lis in October.”
Yevgeny Balashov remarked that for many years Belarus has been Irkutsk Oblast's leading partner in trade, economic, scientific, technical, and cultural cooperation. Belarus is ranked second among the CIS states in terms of foreign trade volume. The establishment of the working group on cooperation between Belarus and Irkutsk Oblast spurred trade growth. In 2018 bilateral trade totaled $108.3 million, nearly 40% up from 2017.
“We are not going to stop at that. I am convinced that we are going to increase trade turnover every year. We have very serious plans and intensions. A factory to make Belarusian lifts has already been built. It is a major problem in Irkutsk Oblast. Belkommunmash electric buses and Amkodor forest harvesters are being tested in our region now. We have great hopes for manufacturing as well. The construction of new enterprises in the area of meat processing, storage of agricultural products is being discussed now,” Yevgeny Balashov said.
In his words, the Russian region has a strong interest in Belarusian experience in various branches of the economy. “We hope for fruitful cooperation. We are still learning. As a region that has gas, oil, gold, other mineral resources we are learning how to build our economy without all of that. Belarus is an example we would like to follow,” the official said.
The 4th international B2B contact fair Brest 2019 opened on 11 April. About 200 foreign guests from 20 countries are taking part in the two-day forum.
