Alexander Surikov about progress in cooperation between Belarus and Russia in 2008

The past year showed further increase in integration processes in the Union State, said the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Belarus Alexander Surikov at the press conference.

The past year showed further increase in integration processes in the Union State, said the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Belarus Alexander Surikov at the press conference.

The culmination of all the work in 2008 was the meeting of the Union government held on January 30^th and Supreme State Council that took place on February 3^rd. These events were held in a positive working mood, noted the Ambassador of the Russian Federation. The main point of both discussions was the measures to be taken in order to overcome the influence of the global financial-economic crisis on Belarusian and Russian economies. Union State government approved the Plan of Joint Action which had been drawn up by Belarusian and Russian Ministries of Economy. The key items of the plan are:

· concerted action of the two states in order to extend the usage of Russian ruble for external economic deals;

· concerted action so as to support reciprocal trade;

· coordination of crisis management measures taken by Belarusian and Russian parties;

· expansion of integration cooperation, establishment of holding companies as well as joint ventures in production and technical fields;

· facilitation of access of goods to internal markets, including the access of Belarusian and Russian producers to government purchases in both countries as well as facilitation of access of goods produced by the enterprises that have a high rate of cooperation and goods that are included in the Union State balance;

· expansion of leasing area;

· a number of measures aimed to regulate and synchronize inflation processes, currency exchange rates, investment forecasts as well as to improve the conditions of entrepreneurship.

The Plan of Joint Action was highly appreciated by the Presidents of both countries and the Union government.

Union budget was examined at the meeting as well. Besides that, the participants approved work schedules of joint boards of Belarusian and Russian ministries in 2009.

Alexander Surikov also mentioned significant progress in Belarusian-Russian economic cooperation. First of all, it resulted in considerable increase of turnover that amounted to $34.2 billion which “in comparison with 2005 ($15.9 billion) is twice as much”, noted Russian ambassador. “It is the development of cooperation and integration economic relations that improves growth rate,” said the ambassador.

No doubt that most of the work aimed to improve economic relations was carried out by Russian economic players, reported the ambassador. Delegations from many Russian regions including the biggest ones regularly visit Belarus. Moscow can serve as an example. Last year turnover with this city totalled $6 billion (as compared to $3 billion in 2007). Volume of bilateral trade with a number of other regions increased as well.

Moreover, a lot of projects in the field of logistics, trade, cooperation relations of enterprises and construction are implemented thanks to cooperation between Belarus and Russia.

Appreciable progress in cooperation with the Russian party is also observed by Belarusian industrial enterprises.

Speaking about financial cooperation, A.Surikov noted that the five Russian banks which had entered Belarusian financial market before were joined by Sberbank of the Russian Federation as well as Rosselkhozbank – the largest banks of Russia.

In his speech the Ambassador of the Russian Federation also touched upon such areas of cooperation as military-industrial complex, chemical industry, energy sector and others.