Business news

VITEBSK, 15 April (BelTA) – The fifth international economic forum Innovations. Investments. Prospects in Vitebsk will provide a platform for establishing contacts between businessmen and diplomats from the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the European Union (EU), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Director of the Vitebsk Oblast Marketing Center Irina Makarenko said at a press conference on 15 April, BelTA has learned.

The event will be hosted by the Vitebsk Palace of Sports on 12-13 May. “The special feature of the forum is that it will bring together diplomats of three international organizations, the Eurasian Economic Union, the European Union, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. We hope that negotiations in such a format will bring results. First of all, in terms of the image. The forum is expected to boost the potential of Vitebsk Oblast as a partner open for multidimensional cooperation. To achieve this, we will slightly change the format of the presentation of districts,” Irina Makarenko explained.

An international conference on energy conservation and a section meeting on free economic zones as promising platforms for attracting foreign investment will be held as part of the forum. Besides, plans have been made to hold an event on logistics innovations in Orsha on 13 May.

A number of roundtable meetings will be held to discuss the results of agreements signed at the previous editions of the forum. For example, the negotiations with Polish partners are nearing completion. A delegation of 16 businessmen headed by the president of the Lodz Agency of Regional Development will visit Vitebsk Oblast and propose specific investment ideas. One of them is to build a hotel in Vitebsk and a business center in Orsha. “We have also been invited to strengthen cooperation through presence on an online platform for the promotion of our products in China. We have sent information about our enterprises to our Chinese partners. I believe we will sign an agreement with the online platform during the forum,” Irina Makarenko said.

Businessmen and diplomats from Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, France, Kyrgyzstan, Italy, Germany, and China have received invitations to take part in the forum in Vitebsk. Representatives of the embassies of Germany, Serbia, Latvia, Slovakia, and the United Nations Development Program have already confirmed their participation.

The forum is organized by the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee, Vitebsk City Hall, the Vitebsk Oblast department for rational use of fuel and energy resources, the Vitebsk Oblast Marketing Center, and the administration of the Vitebsk Free Economic Zone.