MINSK, 23 December (BelTA) - For Belarus, Germany has been one of the key partners in the European Union. Last year was unprecedented as we greatly intensified contacts and brought the Belarusian-German dialogue to a qualitatively new level, Belarus' Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei said in an interview with the Osteuropa Informationen economic publication of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, BelTA has learned.
“We see additional opportunities primarily in the development of joint ventures in Belarus that will manufacture competitive goods. In our opinion, there are particularly good prospects in such industries as mechanic engineering and instrumentation, chemical and pharmaceutical industry, transport and logistics,” the minister said.
According to him, Belarus is also interested in the arrival of even more German firms in the Hi-Tech Park which created unprecedentedly favorable conditions for innovative initiatives in the IT sector.
“Economic cooperation between our countries has enormous potential that we can and must use more fully, including with the support of the Eastern Committee - German Eastern Business Association which is a long-standing reliable partner of Belarus,” the head of the Belarusian Ministry of Froeign Affairs said.
Vladimir Makei noted that Germany is traditionally among the five key trade, economic and investment partners of Belarus. In recent years the trade has grown considerably and exceeded $3 billion in 2018. More than 300 enterprises with German capital already operate in Belarus. For Belarus, Germany is the largest supplier of high-tech equipment for modernizing domestic enterprises. There has been a noticeable increase in interest in cooperation from German business. Thus, the volume of German investments in Belarus in 2018 increased by 2.5 times compared to 2017.
