The flax industry is one of the priorities of cooperation between the Vitebsk region and Harbin
An official delegation of the People's Republic of China, headed by the Vice Mayor of Harbin, is in Vitebsk today. The guests visited the Vitebsk State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and held negotiations with the city leadership. Talking to journalists after a meeting at the city executive committee, Zhang Wanping noted that flax is a traditional crop for China, and especially for Harbin.
"We have one of the counties called the Homeland of Flax. But in recent years, due to the reduction in areas where flax is cultivated, we have been forced to import fiber from Europe. We buy raw materials in France and Lithuania. But we know that in Belarus, and specifically in the Vitebsk region, flax cultivation is taken seriously, and we see great potential for further cooperation in this area. Therefore, today, in addition to the traditional areas of cooperation between twin cities, we specifically discussed interaction in the flax industry. We believe that this is the further priority direction of our cooperation," emphasized Zhang Wanping.
During the meeting, the possibilities of supplying flax fiber from the region directly to Harbin, bypassing intermediaries (currently, trade is carried out through specialized companies), were discussed. "We will be able to work on mutually beneficial terms. We will start with trade, and then we will expand cooperation to the production stages," said the head of the delegation. Viktor Nikolaikin, Chairman of the Vitebsk City Executive Committee, expressed his interest in cooperation, which could result in the creation of a joint venture in the FEZ "Vitebsk".
The Chinese delegation has been in Belarus since February 28. The guests visited Minsk, Lida, Gomel, and Vitebsk. An agreement on cooperation was signed between Vitebsk and Harbin in 2009, and the cities became sister cities in 2012. Students of Secondary School No. 44 in Vitebsk have been studying Chinese for 14 years and have been fruitfully cooperating with the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Belarus.
Confucius Institutes at BSU and MSLU (Minsk State Linguistic University). China is the second largest foreign trade partner of Vitebsk after Russia. In 2016, the foreign trade turnover between the regional center and the PRC amounted to $81.2 million. More than 50 organizations in Vitebsk maintain ties with Chinese business entities. Last year, the basis of exports consisted of vegetable oils, leather raw materials, and flax; trial shipments of confectionery and alcoholic beverages were carried out for the first time; and the export of optical instruments was resumed. The main share in import supplies is occupied by consumer goods (clothing, footwear), industrial equipment and household appliances, rolled metal and metal products, raw materials for the production of footwear, veterinary and pharmaceutical preparations, and components for the production of electrical appliances.
Alena Tikhonova - BELTA. Photo by Anton Stepanishchev - "Vitebskie vesti".