REUTERS
Ukraine and Belarus plan to boost trade to US$7.9 billion in the next two years due to the development of joint cooperation, according to the results of the 25th meeting of the Intergovernmental Ukrainian-Belarussian Joint Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation held on July 18.
"We should accelerate our relations. The potential allows us to hope during the next two years to reach the record figures we had in 2012 when the turnover was estimated at $7.9 billion. There are both external and internal prerequisites for this," Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Semashko told journalists.
He also noted that trade between Ukraine and Belarus increased by 10.5% in 2016, despite the fact that it was a year of recession.
According to Semashko, the key direction of cooperation is production, which will be developed both for domestic consumption and for export.
"We should use the fact that Ukraine is in a free trade area with the EU, while Belarus is part of the Eurasian Economic Union," he said.
Read alsoBelTA: Belorusneft wins tender to drill gas condensate wells in UkraineUkrainian Minister for Regional Development, Construction, and Housing, Deputy Prime Minister Hennady Zubko, in turn, said that Ukraine and Belarus would strengthen cooperation in production, particularly in the field of machine building and agricultural machinery industry.
"We have agreed to continue work on organizing joint assembly production of 'Belarus' tractors and 'Gomselmash' grain harvesters in territory of Belarus and Ukraine, production of freight motor vehicles, as well as mutual deliveries of freight rail cars, spare parts, and other products of heavy engineering," Zubko said.
According to the Ukrainian official, Ukraine and Belarus will continue to develop rail transportation by means of the Viking combined transport train and the ZUBR container train. Moreover, the parties will elaborate joint solutions to increase overall dimensions of the waterway between Kyiv Hydroelectric Station (Ukraine) – Nizhnia Zhary (Belarus), which is necessary for the passage of river-sea vessels.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine and Belarus would hold an economic forum on July 21 where the interested parties would discuss trade and investment cooperation between the countries. The program of the event includes a plenary part, which will highlight the current situation, prospects and priorities of Ukrainian-Belarusian economic and investment cooperation, as well as conditions and advantages of doing business in Ukraine and Belarus.
Ukrainian exports to Belarus in January-April 2017 rose by 46.7% in January-April 2017 year-over-year, to US$ 331.9 million, while goods imports from Belarus to Ukraine increased by 20.5%, to $954.4 million.
Ukrainian exports to Belarus fell by 48.2% in 2015, to $870.7 million, whereas imports decreased by 38.3%, to $2.4 billion.