Opinions & Interviews

ST. PETERSBURG, 29 January (BelTA) - Cooperation between Belarus and St. Petersburg has been successful and is strategic in nature, St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko said when speaking at the 8th meeting of the Business Cooperation Council, BelTA has learned.

"Cooperation is strategic in nature. It is based not only on the solid foundation of the Belarus-Russia Union State but also on the mutual attraction between our peoples. We have been working together to promote industrial cooperation, strengthen our cultural and humanitarian ties,” said Georgy Poltavchenko

He recalled that the program of cooperation signed four years ago expires this year. "We have started to collect and analyze proposals for the new program which will be designed to run in 2017-2020," the Governor said. According to him, the draft document will be sent to the Prime Minister of Belarus soon for finalization and approval.

Georgy Poltavchenko said that concrete results corroborated by facts and figures show that the cooperation has been successful. "The program of cooperation involves 22 committees of the administration, 18 district administrations, 25 organizations and enterprises of St. Petersburg," he said. In 2015 the trade amounted to about $1.5 billion. Georgy Poltavchenko stressed that there is a great potential for boosting the bilateral trade turnover in the future.