About 300 participants will gather at the First Belarusian-Latvian Forum of Twin Cities in Novopolotsk

March 28, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. The First Belarusian-Latvian Forum of Twin Cities "Prospects for the Development of Belarusian-Latvian Regional and Twin City Cooperation" in Novopolotsk will bring together about 300 participants, the department of ideological work of the Novopolotsk City Executive Committee informed a BELTA correspondent. The forum will begin its work on March 28. Today, Novopolotsk will welcome representatives of delegations of heads of diplomatic missions of Latvia in Belarus and Belarus in Latvia, mayors of already twinned cities and those who are still planning to find a partner. The main events of the forum will take place on March 29. On this day, the solemn opening of the forum, the signing of cooperation agreements and a plenary session will be held, at which the chairman of the Belarusian organization "Twinned Cities" Boris Batura, the Ambassador of Belarus to Latvia Alexander Gerasimenko, and the head of the Society for the Support of Economic Relations between Latvia and Belarus Alfreds Cepanis will speak. Also, representatives of city administrations will meet and discuss options and directions of cooperation in thematic sections with the participation of representatives of ministries and departments. The work of the sections will be carried out in three areas: topical issues of interregional cooperation of local authorities; cooperation of tourist complexes and cultural sites of Belarus and Latvia; trade and economic cooperation of Belarusian and Latvian regions, problems of their solution and prospects. In addition, the program for the day includes participants getting acquainted with the investment projects of the Vitebsk region, visiting an exhibition of enterprises of the region, and sightseeing tours of Novopolotsk for the participants. Currently, more than 30 pairs of cities from the two countries have concluded cooperation agreements, including 19 with the participation of cities from the Vitebsk region, and more than ten pairs (five with representatives of the region) are in the process of establishing contacts. In addition, another 27 administrative units of Latvia have expressed a desire to find twin cities in Belarus. Novopolotsk was chosen as the venue for the forum not by chance. It has extensive experience in establishing such contacts - agreements on cooperation in the cultural and economic spheres have been concluded with 16 cities of various countries, including two cities in Latvia. -0-