MINSK, 31 August (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko has identified the key areas where Belarus is ready to tightly cooperate with the Chinese side. The president recounted them in an interview with the Xinhua news agency, BelTA has learned.
The head of state drew attention to the fact that Belarus was one of the first few countries to join the Belt and Road initiative. Belarus realized right away that these are not just pretty words, that these are concrete opportunities and prospects for the economy and for the people. Over the years cooperation with China has produced tangible results.
The president singled out the Great Stone Industrial Park, which China President Xi Jinping has described as a pearl of the Belt and Road initiative. “It was extremely important for me to prevent the park from becoming a logistics hub and to make it a genuine cluster for science-intensive manufacturing facilities. Nowadays it is a work site where enterprises with modern technologies, digital solutions, and innovative approaches are being set up. Competences are born, new jobs are created, and the future of the economy is shaped here,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.
The two countries are successfully implementing a program of joint technological projects aimed at modernizing the manufacturing sector and stepping up manufacturing cooperation in the spheres of innovations and digital economy. Fruitful cooperation is developing in the field of sustainable development, including the realization of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. With support of the Chinese side the first project is being implemented within the framework of the initiative for global development. The project is being implemented with assistance of the Foundation for South-South Global Development and Cooperation of the Chinese government. The protection of Belarus’ forests is a complex initiative meant to ensure preparedness for preventing and responding to fires at the local level.
“Belarus is ready to continue tightly cooperating with the Chinese side in several key areas in the future,” the president assured and recounted some of them.
For instance, those are efforts to deepen the symbiosis of national development strategies, to step up interaction in the fields of digital economy, logistics, high technologies, and to look for new ways for expanding trade and economic integration. Efforts will continue to perfect mechanisms of intergovernmental cooperation with a view to improving the efficiency of coordination and realization of large projects, ensuring their full compliance with common strategic interests of the parties.
Innovations and cutting-edge technologies as the key driver of economic growth will be emphasized. “We have already jointly conducted so-called Years of Cooperation in the fields of science, technology, and innovations. And we have made plans to pay more attention to manufacturing cooperation,” the head of state noted.
Apart from that, there are plans to continue expanding humanitarian exchanges and cultural ones, bolstering mutual understanding and trust between the nations of Belarus and China. After all, grassroots diplomacy is the most durable foundation for the long-term development of bilateral relations.
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