Belarus and Kazakhstan will work on realizing the potential of mutual investment. This was stated by Deputy Economy Minister Pavel Utyupin on the margins of the Belarusian-Kazakh business forum in Minsk.

"The mutual investment potential between the countries is quite large in many sectors; we need to work with colleagues in this direction. To do this, we are holding today's event, so that the businesses are able to communicate, hear each other, see the support that comes from the heads of state, which is very important," said Pavel Utyupin.

He noted positive changes in foreign trade between Belarus and Kazakhstan. "Due to the objective reasons that developed in the world markets, there was a decrease in the foreign trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Belarus, but the recovery dynamics allows us to be sure that we will be able to return to $ 1 billion, which was still a couple of years ago," the Deputy Minister concluded.

"Belarus is interested in effectively cooperating with Kazakhstan in the IT sphere, in the issues of digital transformation of both traditional sectors of the economy, and in creating a new economy within the framework of modern digitalization," said First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vasily Matyushevsky.

Also, he said, Belarus is ready to develop industrial cooperation with Kazakhstan, to cooperate in the agro-industrial complex, transport and logistics, road construction, oil and gas and mining sectors.

"Moreover, we are not just talking about transport logistics, but about creating two essentially digital transit corridors." We talked about this for a long time, now we'll move on to practical implementation," the First Deputy Prime Minister stressed. "Today, the heads of the state came to the conclusion that our bilateral relations should reach a qualitatively new level, that level of strategic partnership has yielded certain results, but the potential that we have in our bilateral relations can give much more," said Vasily Matyushevsky. He noted that Belarus is counting on the arrival of large Kazakh capital into the economy.

Significant contracts were signed at the forum. Thus, BelAZ entered into a contract with AstanaBelAZZervis LLP on the delivery to Kazakhstan of 25 dump trucks with a carrying capacity of 90 tons and 130 tons for a total of about $ 25 million. Also, an agreement was signed between Gomselmash and Agromashholding for the delivery of 500 machine sets to harvesters in 2018. Moreover, a contract was concluded between Minsk Tractor Plant OJSC and Belorussian Tractor Trading House LLP for the delivery in 2018 of 2,000 units of equipment. A memorandum was signed between MAZ OJSC and Hyundai Trans Auto LLP, according to which it is planned to supply 100 truck sets of dump trucks and municipal vehicles in 2018. An agreement on the creation of a joint business council by the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Foreign Trade Chamber of Kazakhstan was also concluded at the forum.

The Belarusian-Kazakh business forum gathered around 400 participants in Minsk. The event was held simultaneously with the negotiations of the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was taking an official visit to Belarus on November 29-30. 

Based on BelTA materials