Business news

MINSK, 12 February (BelTA) – The export of Belarusian goods to France exceeded $100 million in 2014, Belarus’ Ambassador to France Pavel Latushko said at the opening ceremony of the First Belarusian-French Business Forum in Minsk on 12 February, BelTA has learned.

“Belarus’ merchandise export to France has surpassed the symbolic mark of $100 million for the first time over the last ten years. In 2014 Belarus supplied goods worth $110 million to the French market, with the export growth rate at 120%,” he noted.

Besides, Pavel Latushko pointed out that Belarus and France still do not fully use their potential. “To bolster our cooperation, we have focused on the organization of presentations of the Belarusian economy in different regions of France. Over the last two years, we have held 18 presentations for representatives of some 450 French companies,” he said. The ambassador pointed out that French investments in the Belarusian economy amounted to around $5 million in 2014.

“The organization of the first session of the joint Belarusian-French commission for economic cooperation will also greatly contribute to the development of our bilateral ties. Our countries have been moving towards this for 20 years, which also proves that we are very interested in boosting our economic cooperation,” Pavel Latushko noted. He believes that the session will discuss almost all the economic sectors, including power engineering, agriculture, pharmaceutics, transport, and tourism.

The First Belarusian-French Business Forum has gathered representatives of French companies from more than 15 cities of 10 regions. Over 50 Belarusian and 58 French businessmen got an opportunity to hold bilateral negotiations. The French participants of the forum will learn about Belarus’ export and investment potential and the experience of other foreign companies operating on the Belarusian market.