KYIV, 5 February (BelTA) – In 2010 Belarus and Ukraine are set to reach the pre-crisis level of trade turnover, which stood at $5 billion, BelTA learnt form Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Ukraine Valentin Velichko. For the past several years trade and economic cooperation between the two countries has been vibrant. Starting from 2003 the trade increased several times reaching almost $5 billion in 2008. Yet, last year the financial crisis affected the mutual trade, the diplomat said. Despite all the difficulties Belarus and Ukraine managed to preserve contacts at the previous level. The manufacturing facilities remain competitive and operate successfully. Some of them have started settling the payments in national currencies. As a result, the Belarusian-Ukrainian trade reached almost $3 billion in 2009, with Belarus’ surplus reaching $403.7 million. Valentin Velichko believes that the work of the permanent intergovernmental Belarus-Ukraine commission is one of the efficient forms to promote the bilateral trade and economic cooperation in various sectors including energy, industry, agriculture, etc. The regional and border cooperation, joint companies play an important role in the Belarusian-Ukrainian relations. Seven more joint ventures were set up last year alone. Facilities were opened in Kyiv, Nikolayev and Kherson to assemble Belarusian tractors and other agricultural equipment. The dairy industry where Ukraine plans to use the Belarusian primary products is another promising area of the bilateral cooperation, Valentin Velichko said.

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