OREANDA-NEWS. December 09, 2008. Belgian companies AOI n.v., Euro Immo Star and Plant Location Europe suggest implementing investment projects in the area of logistics in Belarus, representative of Euro Immo Star and Plant Location Europe Freddy Opsomer said during his meeting with Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky, reported the Official website www.government.by.

The Minsk meeting took place after preliminary negotiations of the parties in London.

Sergei Sidorsky remarked, “I think after today’s meeting we should get down to concrete implementation of the project”. In short Plant Location Europe would like to be part of Belarus’ logistics.

“We’ve worked out the general logistics system. It goes beyond the first building site (near the Minsk 2 airport). There are proposals for setting up logistics centres along the country’s main motorways and in oblast cities,” said Sergei Sidorsky. He reminded, Belgium was interested in building a hotel in the Minsk 2 airport. “We also spoke about the development of the airport infrastructure on the whole,” he added. The Prime Minister said, all these matters are interesting to Belarus.

In turn, Freddy Opsomer said, “Today it is a very important moment on the way we are beginning in the interests of both the parties”. He explained that at present Western Europe and European Union countries are eagerly waiting for further expansion of the Eurasian transport corridor. The time is also important because main manufacturing and distributing centres are located in Benelux countries. “It is time to get centralized and move onto eastern markets. We are convinced that with its geographical location Belarus will play an important role in the strategic expansion of Europe’s logistics network,” said Freddy Opsomer.

According to the Belgian businessman, as the European transit corridor expands, cities will emerge and become its nodes. As far as Minsk is concerned, it should be more than a city in this corridor.

Not limiting their interest to logistics, the investors are eager to advance associated businesses. The representative of the Belgian companies said that together with the free economic zone Minsk they had determined the location, which would be most advantageous for the Belgian business development. It also meets all requirements for the expansion of Belarus’ logistics system. The Belgian side has already presented its proposals to Belarus. They mainly touch upon building a transport and logistics park. Yet Freddy Opsomer assured, the Belgian companies are also ready to cooperate in the airport development.

Apart from that, the Belgian companies are interested in cooperation in aviation. “The European Commission is ready to start negotiations on signing a civil aviation agreement with Belarus,” said Freddy Opsomer.