Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 20 November (BelTA) – Belarus and Kazakhstan intend to raise their bilateral trade turnover to about $1 billion in 2018, BelTA learned from Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to Belarus Yermukhamet Yertysbayev. As Kazakhstan’s plenipotentiary representative in CIS bodies he took part in a session of the council of plenipotentiary representatives of the CIS states in charter bodies and other bodies in the CIS Executive Committee.

The ambassador said: “The presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan have set the goal of raising the bilateral trade turnover to $1 billion. I think we will be able to get close to the figure this year. It is a very important indicator because the larger the trade turnover is, the larger revenues of the state budget are. I am also happy to note that Belarus and Kazakhstan have signed an agreement on social and economic cooperation for the period till 2026.”

Speaking about the CIS states, the Kazakh ambassador added that the volume of mutual trade rose by 25% in 2017 to $164 billion. “Those are rather impressive figures. Most importantly, growth dynamics continues this year. I should note that Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia account for the lion’s share of the figure,” said Yermukhamet Yertysbayev.

According to the source, the Commonwealth of Independent States has proven to be a sufficiently efficient organization over the course of more than 25 years. “First, the CIS has prevented the disruption of historical ties between nations, the disruption of the ties between companies and economies that existed back in the USSR. At the same time the CIS presented an opportunity to bolster the sovereignty of the countries, which make up this association,” the ambassador is convinced.