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MINSK, 11 May (BelTA) – Belarus and Romania will step up cooperation in trade and tourism, BelTA learned from Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alena Kupchyna after the session of the Belarusian-Romanian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation on 11 May.

According to the source, Belarusians and Romanians will have to rediscover each other in the context of intergovernmental interaction and the interaction of representatives of the business communities of the two countries. Participants of the session discussed a broad range of matters on the agenda. “We have to work harder today considering the real state of affairs in trade and economic cooperation,” noted Alena Kupchyna.

The Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that, unfortunately, Belarus-Romania trade turnover is on the decline due to a number of objective reasons. “We have yet to do a lot to reach the level of 2008 when the trade figures were quite good — $230 million according to Belarusian statistics,” said the official.

The promising avenues of cooperation, on which Belarus and Romania will focus their main efforts, include production sector, agriculture, tourism, transport, pharmaceutics, science and technologies, including high technologies. Alena Kupchyna pointed out that more Belarusian tourists have been going to Romania recently while the export of Belarusian tourism services to Romania has been rising as well. In the near future an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in tourism will be signed. A working group on cooperation in tourism affairs will be set up as well.

According to Alena Kupchyna, the chambers of commerce and industry of Belarus and Romania should also step up their interaction. On the sidelines of the session of the intergovernmental commission representatives of Belarus and Romania also agreed to greatly bolster exhibition efforts. In particular, BelExpo and Romexpo will sign a cooperation agreement soon.

Vlad Vasiliu, State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Entrepreneurship of Romania, confirmed the intention of the Romanian side to step up cooperation in the previously outlined areas and to begin interaction in new areas. “Our meeting today opens new horizons, new doors for expanding cooperation between the two countries,” said Vlad Vasiliu.