Vitebsk region will sign cooperation agreements with Odesa, Vinnytsia, and Cherkasy regions
The delegation of the Vitebsk region, which will be headed by the Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee, Nikolai Sherstnev, will include heads of executive authorities, enterprises and organizations, and representatives of cultural institutions. The Vitebsk branch of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry also plans to conclude agreements with partners from the Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr Chambers of Commerce and Industry at the forum's venues.
The signing of a full-scale cooperation document creates a good basis for the development and strengthening of interregional ties, and allows for the full realization of the existing potential for interaction at the level of cities and districts. Currently, Novopolotsk and Skadovsk, Orsha and Cherkasy, Polotsk and Kamianets-Podilskyi, Braslav district and Bila Tserkva district administration, Shumilino district and Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi are developing contacts on a contractual basis. In 2019, at the 8th forum "Innovations. Investments. Prospects" in Vitebsk, agreements on cooperation were signed between Vitebsk district and Chuhuiv (Kharkiv region), Polotsk District Executive Committee and the Executive Committee of Obukhiv City Council of Kyiv region.
The conclusion of agreements between the regions also serves as a good support for organizing business visits of industrialists to Ukrainian regions and developing contacts in the humanitarian sphere.
In recent years, the trade and economic cooperation of the Vitebsk region with Ukrainian regions has been characterized by high growth rates. According to the results of 2016, the growth rate of commodity turnover exceeded 158%, in 2017 it was almost 230%, and in 2018 it was about 146%. According to data for January-July 2019, the commodity turnover amounted to $164 million, including exports reaching almost $113.7 million. The largest share in the commodity turnover is accounted for by organizations from Kyiv (30%), Zhytomyr and Dnipropetrovsk regions (9.5% and 5.6% respectively).
This year, the largest export growth was achieved in cooperation with partners from the Sumy region - 20-fold, as well as Ternopil (8-fold), Mykolaiv (4.7-fold), and Lviv (3.2-fold) regions. The basis of supplies to the Ukrainian market includes bitumen coal, liquefied gases, as well as polyethylene, power and fiber optic cables, and fiberglass. The Vitebsk Broiler Poultry Farm, Glubokoye Meat Processing Plant, Orsha Canned Meat Plant, Vitba Confectionery Factory, and other producers are present in the Ukrainian food market.