OREANDA-NEWS  On 24 February was announced, that the implementation of joint energy projects will be the focus of the cooperation between Belarus and Poland, said Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky as he met with Waldemar Pawlak, Vice Premier and Economy Minister of Poland. “Polish investors show interest in the Belarusian infrastructure and, first and foremost, in the development of our common infrastructure already set up in Belarus and Poland,” Sergei Sidorsky said. “This infrastructure includes gas and oil pipelines, transport logistics and tourism.”

“If we focus on these projects that we are both interested in, we will be able to considerably increase the bilateral trade,” the Belarusian Premier added.

In his words, there are many achievements in the cooperation between the two countries that have to be discussed. “One of them is the level of the bilateral trade that neared USD 3 billion in 2008,” Sergei Sidorsky said. The number of Belarusian companies in Poland and Polish companies of Belarus is rising every year. At the same time, the level of mutual investment lags behind its true potential which is linked to non-economic reasons, the Prime Minister stated. However, Belarus and Poland have developed a legal and treaty basis to step up investment cooperation.

Sergei Sidorsky also stressed that Belarus has been liberalizing its economy, and this process covers all industries and all regions. Belarus has been creating the environment conducive to the development of medium-sized and small business.

For his part, Waldemar Pawlak said that Poland is very interested in economic cooperation with Belarus. A promising area of cooperation is joint energy projects. For example, the two sides can cooperate under such projects as construction of a coal-fired plant in Zelva and construction of an electricity line. According to the Vice-Premier, the sides discussed “the opportunities on the oil market and diesel fuel import.” “We also talked about international projects which are important for our countries such as the construction of the second line of the Yamal-Europe gas line. This project is cheaper and faster to realize, and we must use this possibility,” Waldemar Pawlak said.

In 2008 the Belarusian-Polish trade was up by 44.9% to USD 2.96 billion. Export to Poland reached USD 1.8 billion (up 47.5%), import USD 1.2 billion (up 41%). Belarus’ trade surplus with Poland made up USD 653.2 million.

The increase in Belarusian export was due to the growth in the deliveries of oil products, liquefied gas, crude oil, potash fertilizer, electricity, timer, tractors. In 2008 Belarus launched exports of 106 new commodities to Poland.

Last year Belarus attracted USD 21.7 million worth of investments from Poland.