Ambassador of Belarus to Armenia: The price factor has not affected  growth of trade turnover between Armenia and Belarus

ArmInfo. During the first 4 months, the trade turnover between Armenia and Belarus increased by 67%, the volume of mutual trade is growing in quantitative terms  despite some price increase, "said at the opening of the annual  business forum of the Armenian Nuclear Energy Cooperation  (Armenia-Co-operation), which takes place in Tsakhkadzor on June 2-  3, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of  Belarus to the Republic of Armenia Igor Nazaruk.

Nevertheless, despite high trade turnover with Armenia, the  Belarusian ambassador noted the presence of a number of internal  barriers. In this context, he noted the lack of an appropriate level  of trust between countries. "It is important that we work with each  other in a more trustful way, do not think about any dirty tricks,  pitfalls that may be in the way of our integration. If only because  the very architecture of our union represents a superstructure from  among our representatives. " As external factors I.Nazaruk noted the  volatility of energy prices, increased protectionism on the part of  individual states, abuse of sanctions policy, etc.  At that, the  ambassador added that he sees broad prospects for development of  cooperation between the EAEU countries, in particular, in the field  of space research, machine-tool construction, precision engineering,  agriculture, and biotechnology. At the same time, according to him,  the realization of the digital agenda of the EAEU is gaining  momentum. Speaking about the results of the past year, the Belarusian  diplomat noted, in 2017 compared to 2016 the GDP of Member States has  grown. "The Armenian side has the brightest indicators in this  respect: a 7.5% growth on the background of 1.8% overall for the  whole of the Unified Energy System of Ukraine," he stressed.

To note, the business forum of the EAEU "Armenia-Cooperation" is  being held for the fourth consecutive year in the resort town of  Tsakhkadzor. About 200 businessmen from Armenia, Russia, Belarus,  Kazakhstan, Iran, Georgia take part in the forum on June 2-3. Within  the framework of the event it is planned to hold discussions in the  format of round tables, B2B meetings. According to the organizers  this year, the forum registered a record number of participants.

According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the foreign  trade turnover between Armenia and Belarus in 2017 increased by 21.5%  to $ 44.6 million. In particular, the growth of imports was fixed at  61.7% to 37.6 million, with a decrease in exports by 48.3% to $ 7 in  Q1, the volume of trade between the countries increased by 45.8% to $  12.1 million. The export amounted to $ 2.2 million, with annual  growth of 2.3 times, imports - $ 9.9 million, with growth of 34.7%.