29 September 2007
Georgian economy development minister says that potential for trade with Belarus is huge
The potential for trade with Belarus is huge, as the scale of industrial production there is very large,” George Arveladze, Georgia’s economic development minister, told a BelaPAN correspondent while meeting with a group of European reporters in Tbilisi last week.
Mr. Arveladze noted in particular that almost all tractors operated in Georgia’s fields are Belarusian-made.
The minister said that political and economic relations between countries should develop independently of each other. “Economically, our borders are open to everyone,” he noted, citing economic relations between Georgia and Russia, which are actively developing despite political tensions. He said that Russia’s Vneshtorgbank is the fourth largest bank in the country.
According to him, a Russian company distributes electricity in Tbilisi. Mr. Arveladze said that Russia’s mobile phone operator Vimpelcom (Beeline) had just entered the Georgian market.
According to official Georgian statisticians, the country’s trade with Belarus in the first eight months of 2007 amounted to more $13.9 million, an 11.7-percent year-on-year decrease. Georgia’s exports to Belarus rose by 16.8 percent year-on-year to around $2.5 million, while its imports from Belarus decreased by 16.1 percent to almost $11.5 million. Belarus accounted for 0.36 percent of Georgia’s foreign trade in the first eight months of 2007, down from 0.62 percent in the same period of 2006.
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