Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 13 February (BelTA) – Belarus and France have great cooperation prospects in the field of technologies, Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Yelena Kupchina told reporters after the first session of the Belarus-France commission for economic cooperation on 13 February, BelTA has learned.

“Today we have discussed traditional cooperation avenues, like agriculture, pharmaceutics, manufacturing industry and many other sectors. We believe that we have brilliant cooperation prospects in a number of other fields, like digital economy and technologies. All in all, we have to admit that the bilateral trade (which was estimated at $534 million in 2014) falls behind our capacities and plans. Although Belarus’ export increased (up by 19% in 2014), we are not quite satisfied with the progress,” Yelena Kupchina noted.

She noted that Belarus and France would like to use all available opportunities, including the support of the European Union, to facilitate cooperation between the business communities of the two states.

Representative of the Treasury Directorate General of the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance Sandrine Gaudin thanked her Belarusian partners for the meeting and confirmed that the first Belarus-France business forum held on 12 February was a very important starting point for the further cooperation. It provided an opportunity for Belarusian and French businessmen to meet in person and discuss cooperation prospects. For example, PSA Peugeot Citroen decided to expand its cooperation with Belarus.

In February Belarus will welcome the Foreign Minister of Latvia and a representative of the European External Action Service from Brussels. After that, decision-makers from France, Germany and Poland will come to Belarus.