Business news

MINSK, 29 September (BelTA) – Chile is looking to more than double its trade with Belarus, Director of International Economic Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Deputy Minister of Trade Andres Rebolledo told BelTA.

In his words, the delegation of Chile, which comprised representatives of the country’s official and business circles, is on a visit to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) to study the possibilities of developing cooperation with the EEU member states. The delegation has already been to Russia, and is expected to travel to Kazakhstan and Armenia after its visit to Belarus.

“The goal of our visit was to strengthen mutually beneficial relations with Belarus. We would also like to intensify the process of the talks on the development of the free trade zone between Chile and the EEU. Our current top priority is to discuss and implement the trade agreement between the EEU and Chile. This agreement will open our markets to each other, promote exports on the best terms and help overcome barriers for successful development of bilateral relations,” Andres Rebolledo said.

The Deputy Minister of Trade of Chile noted that he has come to Belarus for the first time. “Minsk has impressed us. We like it here. We are happy with the contacts that were established during the talks and meetings with the country’s officials and businessmen. We hope that they will give fruitful results in the future,” he added.

A day before the Chilean delegation met with a Belarusian delegation led by Director of the Department for Foreign Economic Activity at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Roman Sobolev. The talks laid robust ground for further development of trade and economic relations between the countries. The parties signed a memorandum between the Department for Foreign Economic Activity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Directorate for International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile.

“This will allow us strengthen our cooperation and support the countries in their further development of trade and economic relations. Chile, as Belarus, is an open-economy country. Our economies are similar. They are almost the same in size and both open to the processes that are taking place in the world economy. At the same time our economies are complementary. We hope that we will be able to increase our trade more than two times,” the diplomat said.

According to the diplomat, the introduction of a visa-free regime between Belarus and Chile will give an additional impetus to the bilateral cooperation. “By creating conditions for barrier-free movement of our people we will contribute to the development of our relations. That is why we are currently discussing the issue of introducing the visa-free regime,” Andres Rebolledo said.