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Belarus, Russia's province of Nizhniy Novgorod can achieve annual trade volume of $1 billion in a year or two, Lukashenka says

Belarus and Nizhniy Novgorod can achieve an annual trade volume $1 billion in a year or two, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said Tuesday in Minsk while meeting with the governor of the Russian province, Valery Shantsev.

Trade between Belarus and the province of Nizhniy Novgorod amounted to $800 million in 2012 and "if we preserve this pace, I think we’ll meet the target in the next one or two years," Mr. Lukashenka said, according to the presidential press office.

Mr. Shantsev noted that Belarus was one of the province's strategic partners and it was among the province's three main trading partners in 2012.

"Of course, we set an ambitious target in 2005," Mr. Shantsev said. "We are not abandoning it. The crisis of 2008 and 2009 had its impact on our plans, but in 2012 we exceeded the pre-crisis level of trade by some $150 million, with the increase being 15 percent. I think if we increase our trade at such a pace, we’ll reach this $1-billion level by 2016. We should go further and think how to add another billion because there can never be too much investment and too many trade and economic ties." //BelaPAN