Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 30 January (BelTA) – Belarus hopes to expand investment cooperation with the European Union, Belarus’ Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov noted as he met with Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn on 30 January, BelTA has learned.

“We hope that our cooperation, the investment one in the first place, will gain momentum with the assistance of the European Investment Bank,” Andrei Kobyakov said.

Support for Belarusian projects in energy efficiency, environmental protection, and SME development is also important for the country. “The ongoing sectoral dialogues in economy, finance, trade, customs, and environmental protection have a good track record. We hope that this practice will be adopted in other fields of our cooperation,” the head of government pointed out.

Belarus-EU relations have been developing in a productive way, the PM stated. In January-November 2017, Belarus-EU trade reached almost $13 billion. Belarus’ exports went up by 32% to total $7 billion, the imports grew by 21%.

Andrei Kobyakov also expressed gratitude to Johannes Hahn for his assistance with holding the Belarusian-European Economic Forum in Luxembourg in October 2017. Belarus hopes that this experience will lay the groundwork for further regular events of this kind.