President meets Chairman of the Standing Committee under National People's Congress of China

18 апреля 2017

Today, President Alexander Lukashenko met Zhang Dejiang, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China. The Belarusian President stressed that the high level communication between Belarus and China should facilitate economic cooperation, as well.

Recently, Zhang Dejiang participated in a number of substantive official meetings, including the talks with Belarusian parliamentarians. Zhang Dejiang is an important politician. He is regarded as the third most influential official in China.

President Alexander Lukashenko also added that this year marks 25 years of diplomatic relations between Minsk and Beijing, and the two countries have achieved significant progress. The president also suggested the parties should discuss cooperation in investments, trade, and finance.

The President sees it necessary to intensify the cooperation in financial matters. Belarus is interested in attracting Chinese companies to Belarus. There are provisional agreements for Citibank China to enter the Belarusian market.

Chairman of the NPC’s Standing Committee Zhang Dejiang also said he is happy with the progress of the bilateral cooperation. It has acquired all the features of mature bilateral relations – it has a solid political basis, integrated economic interests, active and dynamic humanitarian ties, and close cooperation on the international arena.

Today, the joint Belarusian-Chinese projects can be found in almost every region of the country. In Dobrush, a modern packaging plant is about to open after the investors from China contributed with $ 350 million.

According to Igor Degtyarev, the chief engineer of Belorusskiye Oboi holding, some European, and Russian companies are ready to purchase 100% of their products.

Also today, Zhang Dejiang met the Belarusian government officials. Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov stressed the Belarusian—Chinese cooperation has reached the level of strategic partnership, which will foster economic cooperation. The Prime Minister also hopes that President Lukashenko’s visit to China that is scheduled for May will foster the relations, too. At the moment, the parties are elaborating a number of projects for the upcoming visit of the President.

The visit of the Belarusian president to China will help promote new initiatives and enhance cooperation, which will take place next month. Experts from the two countries are carefully preparing a number of new projects for these talks.