Belarus counts on intensifying investment cooperation with the European Union, Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov said at a meeting with the European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and negotiations on the expansion of the EU Johannes Khan.

"With the arrival of the European Investment Bank in our country, we expect that our cooperation, primarily investment, will be significantly intensified," Andrei Kobyakov said.

It is also important for the country to support Belarusian projects in the field of energy efficiency, environmental protection, development of small and medium-sized businesses. "The current sectoral dialogues on economics and finance, trade, customs, environmental protection have proved to be good, and we hope for extending this practice to other areas of our interaction," the head of government added.The Prime Minister stated that Belarus' relations with the European Union are developing quite productively. For 11 months of 2017, trade with the EU amounted to almost $ 13 billion. Belarusian exports to the EU increased by 32% to $ 7 billion, imports increased by 21%.

Johannes Khan stressed that the European Union seeks to strengthen ties with Belarus. A number of sectoral dialogues have already begun in various fields. The European Commissioner noted that he welcomed the measures taken in Belarus to create a more comfortable climate for small and medium-sized businesses. "This will attract investors, new foreign companies to Belarus," says Johannes Khan.

Andrei Kobyakov also expressed his gratitude to Johannes Khan for assisting in the holding in October 2017 of the Belarusian-European Economic Forum in Luxembourg organized by NAIP. Belarus hopes that this experience will become the basis for the regular holding of such events.
According to Andrei Kobyakov, Belarus aims to promote dialogue and rapprochement between the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union. "The movement towards the formation of a common economic space from Vladivostok to Lisbon objectively meets the interests of not only the two integration associations and their citizens, but also the interests of third countries," Andrei Kobyakov said.

According to him, in this regard, the issue of concluding a modern basic agreement between Belarus and the European Union is especially topical. "As we see, we have many topics of mutual interest, we are ready for an open discussion of these issues," the head of the Belarusian government said.

Based on the materials of government.bу