Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 12 July (BelTA) – Moldova intends to ramp trade with Belarus up to $400 million, Moldova President Igor Dodon said as he met with Belarusian business representatives, BelTA has learned.

“We have good relations in the political dimension. But we are also interested in mutually beneficial joint business projects. Our partnership with Belarus has traditionally been friendly, and will remain so,” Igor Dodon remarked.

The Moldovan president underlined he is in favor of close cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union. “This year we signed a memorandum of cooperation and have applied for observer status which we will probably get in the coming months. This means that Belarus and Moldova will soon be granted an opportunity to cooperate in the EAEU in addition to bilateral interaction and multilateral cooperation in the CIS. Some very interesting avenues of cooperation are opening up for business,” Igor Dodon added.

The Moldovan president said Moldova is ready to interact with the Belarusian business. “You should tell us how we can help you and if there are any problems. We need to identify these problems and deal with them. This is my job as president. This is also the goal of the Moldovan government and our Belarusian partners, I believe,” Igor Dodon pointed out.

According to the president, in 2017 Belarus’ exports to Moldova went up by over 20%. This means the Belarusian products are in demand in the country. “There are very interesting projects to set up joint ventures, for instance, a company to make trams in Chisinau. We are currently assembling them for the domestic market because we need to upgrade the Chisinau tram fleet. But I believe we will be able to enter other markets together within several years. There are no taxes on Moldovan exports to the EU. This means Belarus can branch out into the Romanian market and other countries via Moldova,” the president clarified.

In this light, Igor Dodon called on Belarus’ business to consider not only selling goods to Moldovan consumers but also setting up ventures that could export products to third countries. Moldova can adopt separate laws for strategic projects, he specified.

“I would like to assure you that we are interested in attracting more Belarusian investors. This is why if you are interested (and I believe you are), we will do our best to facilitate this process,” Igor Dodon summarized.