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VITEBSK, 8 December (BelTA) - Regional development is one of the main priorities in cooperation between the EU and Belarus, Head of the European Union Delegation to Belarus Andrea Wiktorin told the media in Vitebsk on 8 December.

“This year we have stepped up cooperation with Belarus. We have doubled the assistance to your country. Regional development is important to us. The focus is on the projects on social integration, economic cooperation, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises. All this is very important to us,” said Andrea Wiktorin.

She added that the EU provides technical assistance to Belarus, including to ministries. “We cooperate with the financial sector. I am happy that the European Investment Bank opened the door to financing for Belarus. We support its cooperation with your country,” Andrea Wiktorin noted. She said that a big project in vocational training is in the pipeline. “Vocational training is one of the priorities for the EU. We are now working on the activities to be implemented as part of this big project,” said the Head of the European Union Delegation to Belarus.

Today in Vitebsk Andrea Wiktorin attended a presentation of the results of the project on energy-efficient modernization of Shmyrev Vitebsk state vocational-technical college of mechanical engineering. It was carried as part of the pilot project “Developing an Integrated Approach to a Stepped-Up Energy Saving Programme”. The college underwent major repairs, was infused with modern energy-saving technologies: solar collectors and heat recovery systems. In addition, the walls were insulated, energy-saving equipment and reflection screens were installed. As a result, electricity consumption amounted to 3,000 kWh in November 2016 while in November 2015 it was 11,000 kWh.

The project “Developing an Integrated Approach to a Stepped-Up Energy Saving Programme” funded by the European Union and cosponsored by local authorities is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Belarus. The national executing agency is the Energy Efficiency Department of the State Committee for Standardization. In addition to the college the project involved pre-school establishments in Grodno and Oshmyany (Grodno Oblast), secondary school in Dzershinsk (Minsk).