The Cooperative Protocol on Jointly Constructing “the Economic Belt of the Silk Road” between the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Belarus was signed in Beijing on December 22.
According to the protocol, inked by Chinese Representative of International Trade Negotiations and Vice Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan and Belarusian Minister of Economy, both sides will jointly promote the construction of “the Economic Belt of the Silk Road” under the framework of the sub-committee of the inter-governmental cooperation council to fully improve the cooperation in trade, investment, economy, technology and industrial parks and advance the interconnectivity of infrastructure.
Belarus, with a good geographical location, is a significant point in “the Economic Belt of the Silk Road” extending to Europe. In 2013, China and Belarus established the comprehensive strategic partnership. Political mutual trust has ever since increased constantly and the development of trade and economic relations has enjoyed remarkable achievements. China has become an important trade partner and investment source for Belarus.
Zhong said that the cooperation between China and Belarus in jointly constructing the Silk Road economic belt will inject new power into the trade and economic relationship between the two countries. Both sides will launch a batch of big projects such as machine manufacturing, telecommunications and infrastructure through the platform of the China-Belarus industrial park to conduct logistics and transportation cooperation and strive to build the China-Belarus industrial park into an example project in the Economic Belt of the Silk Road.
Snopkov said that the Economic Belt of the Silk Road has rich connotations. As China’s comprehensive strategic partner, Belarus is willing to jointly promote the construction of the Economic Belt of the Silk Road and believes that this cooperation can promote bilateral trade and economic cooperation to reach a new level and enable the development of the economies and peoples of both countries to jointly benefit from that.