The official visit of our President to Austria has begun. The coming days will be full of meetings and events. Today Alexander Lukashenko laid a wreath at the monument to Soviet soldiers killed during the liberation of Austria. The Belarusian-Austrian business forum will be held in Vienna simultaneously with the visit of the President. More than 200 representatives of companies will take part in the forum. And in general, the visit of the head of state will have a positive impact on the development of interaction between Belarus and the European Union. Austria has always supported our efforts to promote dialogue with the EU. Vienna has always been pragmatically and clearly oriented towards co-operation, despite the sanctions against Belarus.
In recent years, Minsk and Vienna have seen positive developments in virtually all areas of economic cooperation. Our trade turnover has grown by 20%, and Austrian investment and amounted to $300 million last year. Minsk and Vienna already have successful experience of cooperation in the energy, woodworking, construction, telecommunications and banking sectors.
