Traditional medicine and tourism. Minsk region and the Chinese city of Chongqing signed the “Road Map”

The Minsk region is actively developing cooperation with the People’s Republic of China. Business meetings between representatives of both sides have already become commonplace. Today is a new round. The delegation of the city of Chongqing, headed by the Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s People’s Congress of the city Qu Qian, visited the Minsk Regional Executive Committee, where negotiations and signing of the “Road Map” – Minsk Pravda took place.

Cooperation between the Minsk region and the city of Chongqing goes back to 2002, when a cooperation agreement was signed. And in March 2017, twinning relations were established between the regions.

The previous meeting of the Deputy Chairman of the Minsk Regional Executive Committee Denis Kurlenko and the delegation of the city of Chongqing, headed by the Deputy Head of the Department of Commerce of the People’s Government of the city Xu Xincheng, took place on June 29 this year as part of the opening of the exhibition of Chinese goods and services at the Great Stone Industrial Park. At that time, agreements were reached on intensifying cooperation in various areas of interaction, which were included in the Roadmap signed today.

At the beginning of the negotiations, Denis Kurlenko noted that such a face-to-face meeting was long-awaited, since previously it was necessary to maintain contacts online.

— I know that you were at the Great Stone industrial park yesterday and discussed a number of areas of bilateral cooperation. We are interested in traditional Chinese medicine. Unfortunately, in the course of contacts with our Chinese colleagues, we were unable to develop this theme. If after your visit it will get a second wind, then we are ready to establish cooperation with pleasure,” Denis Kurlenko emphasized. We are interested in medical reagents. These are import-substituting products, which, given the sanctions pressure on external circuits that our country is experiencing, is very important for us.

In addition, the deputy chairman of the Minsk Regional Executive Committee said that yesterday the topic of the possibility of creating a coordination center on the territory of the Belarusian-Chinese industrial park, which would coordinate and regulate transportation from the Republic of Belarus to the People’s Republic of China and back was discussed:

— It is very important for us to systematize transportation. If we have solved these issues for large producers at the country level, then medium and smaller producers suffer from the fact that it is difficult for them to find their place in the existing chains. Therefore, we need to take into account the logical interests of all our manufacturers, and in this direction we are ready to cooperate with you.

Qu Qian acquainted the representatives of the Minsk region with the economic indicators of his city of Chongqing, spoke about the main achievements and directions of development. As for interaction with the Minsk region, here he noted the readiness to establish deeper ties:

— We are ready to strengthen our cooperation in the cultural, educational and scientific fields. In the future, we want to organize student exchanges at universities in order to learn from experience. As for interregional cooperation, here we would very much like to establish sister city relations between the Minsk region and the city of Chongqing.

During the meeting, the Chinese delegation put forward a number of proposals. Including those relating to traditional Chinese medicine. Here they agreed to establish friendly relations between the medical institutions of the Minsk region and the Chongqing hospital.

In the field of logistics, the representative of the Chinese delegation noted that in the near future an increase in the number of trains delivering their goods to us and back is expected. There was also agreement with Denis Kurlenko’s proposal to establish a coordination center. Soon a representative of a Chinese logistics company will be sent to the Minsk region.

— Food products, woodworking products, cooperation in the humanitarian sphere, the provision of tourism services… We are ready to discuss all these topics, to develop our interregional cooperation. We also heard proposals from your side and have already selected areas for cooperation from the Minsk region. I think that relevant agreements will be signed in the near future,” said Denis Kurlenko.

For reference. At the end of the first half of 2023, the trade turnover of the Minsk region with the People’s Republic of China amounted to 1,267.7 million US dollars, an increase of 19.4 percent compared to the first half of 2022. The Minsk region exports poultry meat, dairy products, frozen beef, wooden products, flax fiber, etc. to China. Machines for automatic information processing and their blocks, auto parts, telephone sets, television receivers, etc. are imported from China.