By Svetlana Lukyanyuk: The 3rd Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia is planned to be attended by the President of Belarus. Tomorrow, Alexander Lukashenko will speak at a plenary session and hold a meeting with Vladimir Putin.
Direct contacts between the regions are a strong foundation of the Union State. Today’s meeting focused on cooperation in industry, agriculture, medicine, the scientific and information areas, as well as social guarantees for the citizens of the two countries.
The interparliamentary commission at the level of the deputies of the Council of the Republic and the Federation Council spoke about legislative initiatives and reserves to replenish trade turnover. These issues were discussed later in the presence of a Russian delegation.
The parties expect the Forum to result in contracts worth at least 300 million dollars. Today, 80 Russian entities are cooperating with Belarus. Last year alone, 47 Russian delegations visited Belarus.
The delegations of the Council of the Republic and the Federation Council attended the opening of the Belagro exhibition at Minsk 1 Airport.
On site of the exhibition, the Bryansk region signed an agreement with Belpischeprom, Tula and Novosibirsk concluded agreements with the Mogilev region. These documents will add new projects to bilateral relations. The Orel region agreed with Belarusian government on a roadmap for two years during their visit to Minsk in April and signed an agreement with the Belarusian dairy industry giant Grandma's Jug.
The total worth of Belarusian products imported to the Eurasian Economic Union market is estimated at 45 billion dollars. The main objective is to increase the volume of import substitution.
The exhibition and the first talks in the framework of the Forum demonstrate the fact that regional contacts have become a real driving force. This has been confirmed at section meetings.
Information systems to control the movement of goods and reality of veterinary findings have been discussed at Minsk’s vegetable factory.
The Health Ministries of Belarus and Russia are working to create a single market of medicines and approaches in treating cancer. The Russians are studying Belarus’ model of health system development, organisation of therapeutic and preventive care and experience in providing therapeutic resort services.
Belarus and Russia will continue working to harmonise legislation on labour protection and conditions reducing the level of occupational hazards.
Belarusian scientists will be cooperating with their Russian counterparts on an identification programme allowing determining the identity using DNA. The project has been discussed today at the Academy of Sciences, along with another 9 new projects.
The education section signed an agreement on exchanging student volunteers to work in children's summer camps and discussed pre-school and higher education.
Agreements in the sphere of information and press with Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Republic of Tatarstan, Kaliningrad and Nizhny Novgorod region are successfully being implemented
The Forum of Regions will be continued tomorrow at the Palace of the Republic.












