KYIV, 28 December (BelTA) – Being industrially developed countries Belarus and Ukraine are determined to make more use of the potential of the existing and new joint ventures, First Vice-Premier of Belarus Vladimir Semashko said following his meeting with First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Andrei Kluyev in Kyiv on 27 December, BelTA has learnt. The complementary economies of the two countries (Ukraine’s heavy energy- and machine building, Belarus’ microelectronics, instrument-making, production of vehicles and agricultural machines) allow for creating even more joint ventures both in Belarus and Ukraine. Belarus might use the potential of the Customs Union, Ukraine the potential of the WTO. According to Vladimir Semashko, the establishment of joint ventures in the Customs Union will enable the two countries to significantly boost sales on foreign markets. He expressed confidence that traditional exports of Belarus and Ukraine will remain in place and even increase. Several years ago Belarus-Ukraine trade made up about $670,000; back then the two governments made a decision to bring the trade to $3-5 billion. Today this goal is quite feasible: the potential and dynamics of the bilateral cooperation make it absolutely real to increase the trade up to $4.5 billion or even more. This is not the limit, Vladimir Semashko said. Andrei Kluyev voiced Ukraine’s interest in promoting mutually beneficial trade with Belarus across a variety of areas. “Our plans are quite optimistic, the necessary foundation has been laid to fulfill them,” he emphasized. The agenda of the bilateral cooperation includes 67 points; nine of them have been implemented, 58 are in progress. The key priority is given to cooperation in energy, machine building and agricultural industry. These and other issues were discussed during the recent meeting and were included into the joint action plan to promote the bilateral trade and economic cooperation for 2011 signed in Kyiv on 27 December.

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