BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/06/2010

Sergei Sidorsky: Belarus hopes for close cooperation with Kazakhstan

Belarus hopes for a close and efficient cooperation with Kazakhstan, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky said as he met with his Kazakh counterpart Karim Masimov in Minsk on 20 May.

"We expect today's negotiations within a session of the Belarus-Kazakhstan Business Forum to become a solid ground for the development of close and efficient bilateral relations," Sergei Sidorsky said.

According to the Prime Minister, Belarus and Kazakhstan have chosen the right way for cooperation development. These are joint companies, competitive products, new technologies. "I am confident that the implementation of the joint projects will make a considerable contribution to the industrialization of Kazakhstan," he stressed.

Sergei Sidorsky praised the level of the bilateral cooperation. In his words, the agenda of the Belarus-Kazakh forum and intergovernmental negotiations includes the issues of the investment cooperation, creation of joint ventures, collaboration in the industry, agriculture and the development of all-round relations between the countries.

According to Karim Masimov, all the agreements that had been reached during the visit of the President of Kazakhstan to Belarus are being fulfilled. He expressed confidence that today's meeting would give an additional impetus to the Belarusian-Kazakh cooperation. He drew particular attention to a high level of IT development in Belarus, especially, in the part of electronic government developments. "Such innovations have big prospects for development in Kazakhstan. Many companies of Belarus have already come to our country, and we are fully satisfied with the quality and service," he said.

According to Karim Masimov, the Customs Union will open new prospects for mutual partnership between Belarus and Kazakhstan. He also noted that Kazakhstan hopes to sign new contracts with Belarus.

The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan also praised Belarus' social and economic performance in Q1 2010. "The figures say you have come through the crisis with dignity," the Kazakh head of government stated.

Also, in 2010 Belarus and Kazakhstan plan to return to pre-crisis trade levels, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky told on 20 May.

"This year we plan to return to pre-crisis trade levels. In Q1 2010 the trade between the two countries increased by 40%," the Prime Minister said. According to him, both the countries have a solid basis to reach this growth. For the past four months 2010 the growth of the Belarusian economy made more than 6%. Kazakhstan registered the economic growth as well. "We are moving to each other. The creation of new working places and new production facilities will stimulate the further development of the economies of the two countries and the economic cooperation," Sergei Sidorsky noted.

The Prime Minister noted that Belarus is interested in implementation of the best innovation projects in Kazakhstan. Apart from Kazakhstan's governmental delegation, more than 140 Kazakh businessmen have arrived in Minsk. During the visit, they will get familiar with the possibility to invest in the Belarusian economy.

"Kazakh investments in the Belarusian economy, willingness to work in our country would be most welcome," Sergei Sidorsky said and reminded that several benefits are provided for investors in Belarus.

According to Sergei Sidorsky, Belarus and Kazakhstan have established close cooperation in developing the information technologies and technologies transfer.

"We have something to offer to Kazakhstan," the Belarusian Prime Minister said. Around 400 new production technologies are created in Belarus every year. A big part of them are implemented in advanced sectors: heavy-duty motor construction, tractor industry, machine tool industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutics and construction.

According to the Prime Minister, Belarus keeps an eye on the reforms in Kazakhstan aimed at strengthening the ole of the country as a strong economic center in Central Asia and CIS.

Belarus supports Kazakhstan's plans on accelerated industrial development through a range of large-scale infrastructure projects. Last year the two countries signed an important document, Roadmap of the bilateral cooperation for 2010-2011, which is a plan of action for the mid-term perspective. The most promising avenues of cooperation are mining industry, agricultural industry, mechanical engineering.

"At present Belarus and Kazakhstan are developing 30 joint projects including the joint production of quarry equipment and farm machinery, foodstuffs and mineral fertilizers", Sergei Sidorsky noted. He also reminded that there are facilities which assemble Belarusian tractors, combine harvesters, baling machines, semitrailers and engines in Kazakhstan.

The agribusiness may become one of the promising areas of the bilateral cooperation. "We propose Kazakhstan to use the achievements of the Belarusian agrarian science, implement projects on production and processing of cereals, potato and sugar beet basing on the up-to-date systems of mechanization," the Prime Minister noted.

Belarus has great experience of sugar beet processing. "The technological modernization, the introduction of new technological processes, the creation of new production facilities allowed this country to produce up to 4 million tonnes of sugar beet per year, to have up-to-date processing plants. We are ready to implement such big projects in Kazakhstan," Sergei Sidorsky said.

The two sides plan to develop Zhilyanski and Chelkarsky deposits. The project will allow Kazakhstan creating almost new subsector of chemical industry.

Sergei Sidorsky noted that Belarus is among the world leaders in this area. "We introduce new production capacities at Belarusian mines. Our mines can boast the state-of-art preproduction technologies, extractive and ore mining equipment and shaft reinforcement technologies. Our safety engineering technologies meet the world standards. And Belarus is ready to transfer these technologies to Kazakhstan."

In September this year a Belarusian delegation will visit Kazakhstan. "The sides plan to discuss the joint projects to transform from the cooperation on the governmental level to the cooperation on the regional level, the partnership between regions and oblasts," the Prime Minister underscored.

Speaking about the cooperation between Belarus and Kazakhstan, the Prime Minister noted that an active dialogue at the level of the heads of state and government has become a good tradition of the bilateral relations. "There are no problems in our relations today," the Head of the Belarusian Government stated. The similarity of the priorities of the socio-economic development of Belarus and Kazakhstan, the intention to develop real economy, create favourable conditions for investments lay a foundation to the large-scale Belarusian-Kazakh trade and investment partnership.

"We hope that the results of the forum will provide the transition to a new stage of the Belarusian-Kazakh economic partnership which foresees not only the balanced commodity exchange but the large-sale transfer of technologies and investments," the Prime Minister underscored.

In January-March 2010, the Belarus-Kazakhstan trade made up USD 170 million, up 40.6% over the same period last year. The export reached USD 91.8 million (up 56.6%), import - USD 15 million (down 13.5%). Belarus posted a surplus in trade with Kazakhstan at the amount of USD 77 million. Belarus increased the export of sugar, tires, agricultural machines, furniture and butter to Kazakhstan.

Source:

http://www.isria.com/pages/15_June_2010_245.php


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