Business news

VITEBSK, 29 April (BelTA) – Over 20 agreements between regions, business associations and clusters are to be signed at the 6^th international economic forum Innovations. Investment. Prospects which is due in Vitebsk on 11-12 May, Director of the Vitebsk Oblast Marketing Center Irina Makarenko told a press conference on 29 April, BelTA has learned.

“It is expected that more than 20 agreements will be signed. Among them will be agreements between Vitebsk Oblast and Russian regions. The Vitebsk Oblast Marketing Center will sign documents with the All Russia public organization Delovaya Rossiya and the Smolensk Oblast Business Promotion Fund,” noted Irina Makarenko.

FEZ Vitebsk and the Vitebsk Oblast Union of Employers also plan to conclude agreements on cooperation based of the earlier established contacts in Russia, Poland, and Latvia.

Official delegations, representatives of business and business associations from 14 countries have been invited to take part in the forum. The Serbian, Latvian, and Vietnamese embassies and consulates have already confirmed their participation. More participants are expected to come: the Association of Polish Exporters, the Lublin Business Club Association, large delegations of Latvia’s Latgale region, Riebini Krai, Kraslava Krai, Russia’s Smolensk Oblast, Pskov Oblast, Kursk Oblast and other Russian regions, representatives of Chinese, Czech and Italian business. The FEZ Vitebsk also sent invitations to the Belarus-Finland Chamber of Commerce, the Jekabpils City Council, the Lodz Agency of Regional Development. These organizations will then communicate Belarus’ initiatives to their business communities.

In the future the organizers of the forum are going to make more use of virtual communication and video conferencing opportunities in the run-up to the event in Vitebsk. Thus they hope to make visits of foreign participants and potential partners more results-oriented. “We need to understand that the results of these forums do not come immediately. The event is followed by mutual visits, exchange of experience. But we can see the result in the wider geography of exports of local enterprises. Last year, for example, our companies started exporting into more than 15 countries. This means we made progress in the development of promising new markets. Investments also do not come immediately. Every project takes years to develop. But today there are some companies that have already come to work in our region. Our delegations also visited EU countries with a view to exploring the possibility of participation in grant projects,” said Anzhelika Nikitina, the chairperson of the economy committee at the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee.

Advances have been made in the Belarusian-Slovak economic relations. “The project to build a farm to produce marbled beef in Lepel District is in high degree of readiness. Slovakian partners took the decision to invest in the project to set up a sheep farm in Dokshitsy District,” said Konstantin Cherny, deputy chairman of the economy committee of the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee. He also noted the interest of China to cooperation projects in Vitebsk Oblast.