MINSK, 12 December (BelTA) – A larger number of joint ventures can take Belarus-Russia cooperation to new heights, BelTA learned from Tatiana Marchenkova, copy editor of the Smolensk Oblast newspaper Rabochy put, as she visited the Belarusian company Elezer on 12 December as part of a media trip for Russian reporters.
The editor said: “Belarus and Russia should step up cooperation. In my opinion, setting up new enterprises is one of the ways. Today we visited Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant, Elezer, and Saleo. We saw enterprises where amazing vehicles are made. I am stunned by the desire of Belarusians to be the best not only in their own country and Russia but the rest of the world.”
Agriculture was mentioned as another promising avenue of cooperation. “Belarus has always fed Russia, primarily western regions. We, in Smolensk, appreciate your dairy products very much because they are organic and so very tasty. Rogachev-made condensed milk is exceedingly popular,” said Tatiana Marchenkova.
Inna Gushchina, a reporter with the news website top68.ru, also mentioned the need to step up Belarus-Russia cooperation in agriculture. She also mentioned it is necessary to put more efforts into other areas, too. For instance, Tambov Oblast intends to buy Belarusian electric buses while Belarus is ready to buy chemical products made by the Russian region.
Maksim Romashov, a reporter with the Samara Oblast newspaper Volzhskaya kommuna, drew attention to tours across the regions of Belarus and Russia. “Integration of the countries is already strong. However, I think it would be a good idea to direct attention to tourism. For instance, tours to Belarus are not very well represented in Samara Oblast although we would love to come here and see Polotsk and other ancient cities. I think Belarusians would be interested in coming to see the Volga River region, too. Such exchange programs are in short supply,” he believes.
About 100 people, who represent Russian regional and federal mass media, mass media of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, experts and bloggers from Moscow, St Petersburg, Tambov, Bryansk, Tula, Smolensk, and other cities and regions of Russia, are in Belarus on a media trip on 11-14 December. Today they visited Stadler Minsk, an environmental tourism center in Stankovo, and the agricultural company Agrokombinat Dzerzhinskiy.
