Business news

BREST, 3 October (BelTA) – Belarus’ Brest Oblast has plans to sign cooperation agreements with two provinces of China, Chairman of the Economy Committee of the Brest Oblast Executive Committee Mikhail Batsenko told BelTA.

Brest Oblast has been maintaining partner relations with China’s Hubei Province for twenty years already. The Belarusian region is set to sign cooperation agreements with its neighboring provinces. Specifically, the agreement with Anhui will be signed in the near future with the assistance of the Embassies of Belarus and China. The documents are likely to be inked in 2017 as part of the official visit of a Chinese delegation to Brest Oblast.

The agreements are aimed at establishing cooperation in the development of the Silk Road Economic Belt. The project is of particular importance to Belarus from the point of view of logistics and supply of products. "Once the goods get delivered to Europe, the empty containers will be traveling back to China. These containers can be filled with Belarusian products, which will reduce the prime cost,” Mikhail Batsenko stressed.

Brest Oblast is working hard to develop cooperation with China, in particular to attract investments and loans and to bolster exports. “We have reached an agreement with Chinese corporations regarding the attraction of FDI to the region. Plans have been made to implement some 50 projects related to the investment in the authorized funds of enterprises, equity capital, and also attraction of loans for the upgrade of production facilities. For instance, a private company of Brest Oblast is concluding an agreement with a Chinese corporation on the purchase of a $10 million stake,” Mikhail Batsenko noted.