Business news

VITEBSK, 15 July (BelTA) – The Belarus-Russia Union State should create more opportunities for economic cooperation, State Secretary of the Union State Grigory Rapota told reporters on the sidelines of the 25th International Festival of Arts Slavonic Bazaar in Vitebsk, BelTA has learned.

According to him, now one of the topical issues of bilateral cooperation is the harmonization of the economic policies of Russia and Belarus. “We need to create an economic basis, which, in turn, will help develop cultural links on a wider scale. Any cultural project requires money, and money does not come from thin air. It comes from economic opportunities. We need to give this the most careful attention,” Grigory Rapota noted.

The State Secretary stressed that he, in no way, diminishes the importance of cultural relations. “We expand them wherever possible. But we need to create basic conditions for other economic ties. Only in this way can we eliminate those gaps in economic relations which we have had in recent years,” Grigory Rapota noted.

On 15 July Slavonic Bazaar Festival hosted the Day of the Union State. Grigory Rapota met with Chairman of Vitebsk City Hall Nikolai Sherstnev, took part in a ceremony to lay flowers at Memorial on Victory Square and gave a press conference. He also visited the Velikoletchanski Children’s Home, and also met with young artists from Belarus and Russia who gathered for a plein air in the Ilya Repin Museum-Estate Zdravnevo.