Business news

MINSK, 9 January (BelTA) – Belarus and Armenia are working on setting up joint jewelry manufacturing facilities, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Armenia Stepan Sukhorenko said in an interview to the news agency Armenian News-NEWS.am, BelTA has learned.

“The economies of Armenia and Belarus are complementary. Our goods are not competitive to each other. Products made in Armenia are not produced in Belarus and vice versa. I would like to name the jewelry industry as one of the breakthrough areas. The relevant work is underway. We have already received first results. We are first of all interested in setting up joint manufacturing facilities with a higher value added. We are also increased in the area of high technologies. We can achieve a lot with united efforts,” Stepan Sukhorenko said.

According to the diplomat, the Armenian-Belarusian intergovernmental commission held a meeting in October to discuss the advancement of products of the joint companies to the foreign market, taking into account Armenia’s membership in the WTO. “Armenia can supply about 9,000 descriptions of goods to the European market at preferential terms. We have no such preferences. It is also a promising area of cooperation. Keeping in mind the fact that the Armenian government is implementing its agricultural upgrading program, the model lineup produced in Belarus, in all the parameters including the cost, service and quality, is the most acceptable product for the Armenian farmer and can be actively used in the ongoing reforms. We are ready to supply the final product. However, there is a more profitable scenario. We are opening a series of assembly plants. As a result, the cost of one item will go down by 20-30%. We have many cooperation areas. It is important to occupy the niche in time,” the diplomat said.

According to Stepan Sukhorenko, the two countries need to develop relations in tourism as well. The tourist flow between the two states is extremely low. “We are studying Armenia’s potential in the area. It is quite interesting. There is statistics according to which Armenia is ranked among leaders in the number of historical monuments per capita in Europe. The Armenian authorities are doing their best to make the country more open for tourists. I do not think that the geographical distance is an invincible obstacle for Belarus and Armenia. It is only a three-hour journey by air. Many Belarusians travel to Australia, Southeast Asia and Thailand. Armenia can offer tourists its richest history, taking into account the fact that the country embraced Christianity much earlier that Kievan Rus did. Efforts are necessitated to popularize the historical heritage of the country. People do not come there not because it is far away but simply because they know nothing about it,” he said.

At the same time the Ambassador noted that the number of Armenians that are eager to visit Belarus is on the rise. Earlier it was only one weekly flight from Yerevan to Minsk. Today we have three of them and very soon the fourth flight will be opened. “The flow of Armenians to Belarus is huge. Besides, there is a big Armenian diaspora in Belarus. We can expect that once Armenia joins the Eurasian Economic union the business activity between the two countries will increase,” Stepan Sukhorenko said.