Photo courtesy of the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee
VITEBSK, 30 October (BelTA) – The Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee and China’s Jiangxi Province have signed a cooperation roadmap for 2026-2028. Deputy Chairwoman of the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee Anzhelika Nikitina told the media about the areas for expanding cooperation which began back in 2017, BelTA has learned.
A delegation from one of China’s most economically developed provinces made its first visit to Vitebsk. The guests from China toured Vitebsk and some of its enterprises. They noted that their expectations of Belarus’ northern region were met as they saw beautiful nature and learned more about the history and culture of the Vitebsk region. “Vitebsk Oblast is similar to Jiangxi. We also have beautiful scenery and abundant water resources,” the members of the delegation led by Vice Governor of Jiangxi Province Sun Hongshan noted.
“Our cooperation with Jiangxi Province began back in 2017, but mostly it was limited to online events. Sister-city relations with the province have been established separately by Orsha, Polotsk and Vitebsk. Representatives of our districts have visited the city of Nanchang in Jiangxi Province several times. The signed agreements include certain arrangements in industry, medicine, and education, but there has been no comprehensive approach to bilateral cooperation yet. Today we have signed a roadmap, which includes events on the development of the two regions,” Anzhelika Nikitina said.
She emphasized that the new phase of cooperation provides for comprehensive approaches to interaction. “This is cooperation in education, personnel training, including for digitalization and communications, because the province is quite advanced in this regard: a third of the economy of this region is generated by the digital industry. This involves creating competences not only in education but also in technoparks and digitalization of enterprises, so this topic is very interesting to us. Jiangxi is a multi-sector industrial region. It has a well-developed woodworking industry. 63% of its territory is covered by forests, yet they import all the wood for furniture production, including from Belarus. Today we discussed the creation of a furniture hub on our logistic route Belt and Road, which runs through both our regions. This hub would be used not only for furniture production but also for its sales to Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and also non-CIS countries. We have already established communications with Jiangxi Province, we have the route and logistics, so we need to continue working in this area using our logistics centers,” the deputy chairwoman of the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee said.
Furthermore, light industry has drawn the interest of the Chinese partners. Linen fabrics, footwear, and clothing will be supplied from Vitebsk Oblast to Jiangxi.
“Much equipment is supplied from this Chinese province to us today. Primarily, given their advanced digital technologies, this is innovative equipment for the pharmaceutical industry, veterinary drug manufacturing, machine tools, and for modern food processing. We must also develop these competencies. We should not only import equipment but also explore what we can produce jointly in Vitebsk Oblast,” Anzhelika Nikitina emphasized.
Another area of mutual interest for the regions is medicine. “Cooperation is important to us not only in terms of healthcare development but also in the supply of medical equipment, as Jiangxi Province is considered one of the leaders in its production. The province also ranks third in China in terms of its tech-driven economy, and everything our new partners offer translates into new technologies, opportunities, competencies, and educational processes for the residents of our region,” Anzhelika Nikitina said.
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