MINSK, 19 February - Belarus is ready to move forward in industrial and agricultural cooperation with Georgia, Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Rumas said as he met with Georgia's Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava in Minsk on 19 February, BelTA has learned.
“I am convinced that by cooperating with Belarus, Georgia can successfully solve important social and economic problems, such as providing the population with comfortable and environmentally friendly passenger transport, high-quality and inexpensive medicines, food, and other Belarusian products. We are ready to move forward in both industrial and also agricultural cooperation,” said Sergei Rumas.
Today, Georgia assembles Belarusian elevators and packages medicines. Belarusian business is interested in establishing milk processing and dairy production facilities in Georgia. Georgian cognac is bottled in Minsk. “We, of course, look forward to the Georgian government's support for these industrial cooperation initiatives,” the Belarusian head of government said.
In addition, Georgia has a need to update its fleet of fire-fighting vehicles. Tbilisi is planning to purchase cars for the metro. “We have already supplied Stadler's cars, and as I heard, they have proven their worth in Tbilisi. Agricultural engineering companies are also ready to fully meet the demand of Georgian farmers in advanced vehicles and attachments. We have experience in adjusting their technical specifications to the soil and climatic conditions of Georgia," the prime minister added.
He stressed that Georgia is an important and time-tested partner of Belarus. “It is important that we maintain a good dialogue at a high and highest level. We maintain our trade at a stable level. Georgia works better on this front as your export to Belarus has been growing at a faster rate,” Sergei Rumas noted.
Belarus also has something to offer, and I think today's session of the intergovernmental commission will help to outline new areas of cooperation. We should not forget that the head of state has set forth a task to reach $200 million in mutual trade and we all need to work towards it,” he said.
The Belarusian head of government is expected to visit Georgia in March at the invitation of the Georgian prime minister. “I am convinced that your visit and my planned visit will contribute to further strengthening of the Belarusian-Georgian cooperation,” said Sergei Rumas.
In turn, Natia Turnava said that the bilateral relations have reached a high level in recent years. She expressed confidence that the upcoming visit of Sergei Rumas to Georgia would be a fruitful continuation of a number of reciprocal visits and high-level negotiations.
According to her, Belarus and Georgia have been steadily developing their economic relations. At today's session of the intergovernmental commission the parties will have an opportunity to work out areas to make bilateral cooperation more intensive. “There is every ground for even closer cooperation in economy, energy, transport, tourism, healthcare, culture, education and innovations,” she added.
In 2019, the trade between Belarus and Georgia totaled $86.4 million, down 0.6% year on year. The exports made up $50.8 million (down 21.4%), the imports reached $35.6 million (up 59.9%). Belarus' main exports to Georgia included synthetic thread, milk and dairy products, medications, electric transformers and other goods.
Photos by Oksana Manchuk
