Reut: Belarus-Kazakhstan can ramp up mutual exchange of services
MINSK. KAZINFORM Belarus and Kazakhstan have a huge potential for boosting the mutual exchange of services, First Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vyacheslav Reut told reporters at the opening of the Belarus-Kazakhstan business forum on 16 September, BelTA has learned.
In 2013 the bilateral trade of Belarus and Kazakhstan exceeded $1 billion. The export of good accounted for a lion's share of this amount, while the mutual exchange of services was underdeveloped. "We do not use the potential of Belarus and Kazakhstan in full. In particular, Kazakhstan has huge experience in the construction of the new capital, Astana. This wonderful city was built very quickly. Belarus has great health resorts which are popular with Kazakhstani people. In our opinion, it makes sense to enhance cooperation in these and other fields," Vyacheslav Reut said, BelTA reports.
Kazakhstan is the third largest export partner of Belarus in the CIS after Russia and Ukraine. According to Vyacheslav Reut, joint work in the Single Economic Space is a strong leverage for the development of bilateral relations. "The operation of the Belarusian and Kazakhstani chambers of commerce is an illustration of this work. For example, we used to have 4-5 visits of delegations per year, at present we organize 14-15 such trips every year. It means that the interest of companies in joint work has increased," Vyacheslav Reut stressed.
Simultaneously with the Belarus-Kazakhstan business forum in Minsk, Kazakhstan will host a session of the Kazakhstan-Belarus intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation. Partaking in the session will be the delegation of the Belarusian government led by Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Rusy. "It proves that our constant work should generate concrete results," Vyacheslav Reut remarked.
The Belarus-Kazakhstan business forum has brought together more than 50 Belarusian businessmen and 12 companies from Kazakhstan specializing in the manufacture of construction materials, pharmaceuticals, machine-building equipment, foodstuffs.