Belarus-Latvia Business Forum in Vitebsk 2018: a number of agreements and the readiness of the regional leadership to oversee each investment project following the forum
Vitebsk region has long and actively cooperated with the districts of the Baltic country located in the border area. This time, all of Latvia was represented in the regional center: interest in the event was shown by the heads of more than 20 local governments, as well as representatives of about 35 enterprises and organizations ready to expand their business here or interested in finding business partners in Belarus.
— Such broad participation gives a special status to the forum, where local governments, state organizations, and private businesses had the opportunity to meet, discuss current issues, and agree on future projects, — noted the Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee, Nikolai Sherstnev.
Vitebsk region is ready to act as a permanent negotiation platform for twin regions of the two countries. Among the most promising areas of business cooperation, the head of the region highlighted the transport and logistics sector, woodworking, light industry, and tourism. Here we can be useful and effectively complement each other, leveraging the advantages and experience of operating both in the EU and the EAEU.
During the forum events, its participants expanded the promising agenda for business cooperation. According to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Latvia to the Republic of Belarus, Mārtiņš Virsis, the IT sector must be included in it. "With the adoption of Decree No. 8 'On the Development of the Digital Economy,' Belarus has made a big leap forward and has become very interesting to serious players in this business," believes Mr. Virsis.
Head of the Belarusian Representative Office of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency Georgy Voevoda: The basis for successful cooperation in the IT sector is Belarus's achievements in this field, as well as legislation that creates a favorable environment for IT development. There is also a motivating example – the work of the Belarusian High Technologies Park.
Woodworking remains one of the leading sectors for the development of joint activities. But even here, there is room for innovation, which is again related to information technology.
The delegation of JSC "Latvian State Forests" presented IT solutions for forest fund management at the forum. As explained by the official representative of the company, Alina Caktser, these technologies make it possible to automate all business processes of forestry organizations, from plot inventory to logistics (for example, determining the optimal route for timber transportation from a site to a specific consumer).
Mikhail Lavrenov, head of the Daugavpils Entrepreneurs' Club Anchor, came to the forum with assignments from the members of the business union to find partners in mechanical engineering, the hotel business, and real estate management. A good help for this will be the cooperation agreement signed at the forum between Anchor and the Vitebsk Regional Employers' Union.
Although the Entrepreneurs' Club was established about a year ago, the history of business partnership between its members and employers from the Vitebsk region spans several decades. The fact is that the business union was created on the basis of the Council of Directors and Entrepreneurs of Daugavpils, which had been cooperating with its Vitebsk counterparts since the Soviet era.
This fact can be considered characteristic of Belarusian-Latvian relations. And there are dozens of such examples. For instance, the Latvian bureau of the "Lake Land" Euroregion has been implementing joint projects with the border regions of the Vitebsk Oblast for over 15 years. At the forum, the organization signed a letter of intent for cooperation with the Department of Sports and Tourism of the Regional Executive Committee.
The head of the bureau, Ilze Staburņiece, is optimistic about the prospect of expanding partnerships and is ready to propose intensifying the development of educational and gastronomic tourism.
Furthermore, a cooperation agreement between the Sharkovshchina District and the Aizkraukle Municipality of Latvia was signed by the Chairman of the District Executive Committee, Dmitry Lomako, and the Chairman of the Municipal Duma, Leonards Lidums. The intentions to establish closer contacts between the regions were cemented by the signatures under the relevant documents by the heads of the Verkhnedvinsk District and the Dagda Municipality, the Gorodok District and the Amatas Municipality, and the Glubokoe District and the Incukalns Municipality.
