On May 11, during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Belarus, Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Belarusian Ministry of Economy and Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry held the China-Belarus Local Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum jointly. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Lukashenko attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng and Belarusian Minister of Economy Zinovsky presided over the opening ceremony jointly.
The forum was themed on “New Opportunities, New Platforms”, and it was the economic and trade activity with the highest level and the largest scale over 23 years since the establishment of China-Belarus diplomatic relations. About 450 participants attended the forum, including officials of the seven Belarusian regions and municipalities, Chinese officials from Beijing, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hubei, Sichuan and Gansu, as well as the representatives of the business circle of the two countries.
Xi pointed out in his speech that China-Belarus economic and trade relation enjoyed a sustainable and rapid development in recent years, and the bilateral investment, economic and technological cooperation sped up. It is hard-won against the background of the weak recovery of the global economy, reflecting that China-Belarus practical cooperation is of solid foundation and huge potential. Belarus is a must of the Eurasian land transportation with unique geographic advantages of the joint construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt. China is willing to promote the docking of the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the national development strategy of Belarus, deepening the all-around reciprocal cooperation and bolstering the common development of both China and Belarus.
Xi stressed that, local economic and trade cooperation is an important part of the comprehensive and strategic China-Belarus partnership, and the two parties should give full play to the complementary advantages and expand local cooperation. Related departments and local places of the two countries should strengthen their docking, explore new cooperative patterns and probe into new projects, making local economic and trade cooperation the new growth point of the bilateral practical cooperation. The local governments of the two countries should make efforts to promote the liberalization level, optimize the “hard environment” of the bilateral cooperation and business investment, and well construct the “soft environment” while abiding by the law, convenience and practicability. China is willing to strengthen the cooperation on reinforcing productivity with Belarus, and share with Belarus the advanced technologies and efficient productivity in the field of railway, electric power, communication and equipment manufacturing. China also welcomes Belarusian enterprises to expand investment to China. The local governments of the two countries should encourage and support the capable enterprises to enter the China-Belarus Industrial Park. Special attentions should be paid to the small and medium sized enterprises that participate in the bilateral local cooperation and their problems like capital shortage and financing difficulty should be solved. The investment and financing channels and cooperation mechanism should be continuously optimized, and the guidance and driving role of financing to the project should be highlighted. China is willing to discuss with Belarus on financing channels like the Silk Road Fund and China-Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund, in order to promote the development of the bilateral local cooperation.
Lukashenko said that the Belarus-China Local Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum represents the high-level development of the overall bilateral relations. The close connection and cooperation between the local places and enterprises of the two countries is an important part of the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership. The Belarusian government is willing to provide favorable conditions and environment for overseas investors, and welcome Chinese local enterprises to expand investment to Belarus, and take Belarus as the important bridge to exploit the European market. The Belarusian government is grateful for the Chinese government’s strong supports for the localChinese regions’ and enterprises’ cooperation with Belarus. He believed that the seed of bilateral cooperation sowed today would grow into a towering tree in the future.
Before the opening of the forum, accompanied by Belarusian President Lukashenko, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Belarus Innovation Fair of Science and Technology located at the venue of the forum with strong interests, and had short communications with the officials of the participant regions and provinces of the two countries.
During the forum, officials of the provinces and regions of the two countries made speeches on the theme respectively, talked about the cooperation situation, looked forward to the cooperation blueprint, and reached several consensuses. 25 cooperation documents were signed by the local places and enterprises of the two countries with the total volume about US$ 7 billion, covering the sectors of mechanical equipments, electric power, petrifaction, project contracting, infrastructure, information communication, agriculture, automobile and commerce and trade.
