Business news

MOSCOW, 27 March (BelTA) - All agreements on cooperation between St. Petersburg and Belarus are honored, St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko said as he met with Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich on 27 March, the Belarusian Embassy in Russia told BelTA with reference to the St. Petersburg city administration.

Georgy Poltavchenko said that St. Petersburg and Belarus are exploring new areas of cooperation such as joint programs of import substitution, development of a knowledge-based economy, the production of innovative goods.

A list of joint projects has been compiled. The projects will be presented at the Belarus-Russia Forum of Regions due in Moscow in June. They include the construction of ‘symmetric’ quarters in St. Petersburg and Minsk, the projects in information technology, electronics, and pharmaceutics.

Georgy Poltavchenko gave an instruction to the city administration to work out the proposals on cooperation between the districts of St. Petersburg and Minsk by the forum of regions.

The parties also discussed the ways of strengthening the bilateral cooperation. Mikhail Myasnikovich arrived in St. Petersburg to attend the jubilee session of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.

In 2016 the trade between Belarus and St. Petersburg increased by 43% from 2015 and totaled $1.85 billion. In 2016 St. Petersburg hosted 40 fairs of Belarusian goods. A wide range of Belarusian-made goods are on sale in hypermarkets and Belarusian specialty stores in St. Petersburg.