YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia is in 7th place among Balarus' partners - former soviet republics in terms of commodity turnover, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Belarus Vladimir Bobrov, who is on a visit to Armenia, said at the September 18 meeting. According to him, the commodity turnover between Armenia and Belarus made 15.7 million USD in January-July 2007 against 21.3 million USD in the year 2006. V. Bobrov said that Belarusian partners consider as promising the bilateral cooperation in production of drinks, as well as in the information and telecommunication technologies sector. He noted that fruit juices, brandies, wines, container glassware, medicines, mineral waters are exported from Armenia into Belarus, while refrigerators, trucks, tractors, spare parts, knitted wear, building materials, furniture, etc. are imported from Belarus into our country. In the words of the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Armenia Martin Sargsian, although serious transport problems do not allow to implement a number of joint programs, there are some excellent examples of Armenian-Belarusian economic cooperation. At the same time, he expressed a hope that such meetings as this one will help extend the cooperation sectors. To recap, the cooperation between the chambers of commerce and industry of the two countries started in 2002 with the signing of the respective agreement. According to official statistics, in the first seven months of 2007, exports from Armenia to Belarus made 1.7 million dollars (3.8 million dollars in the year 2006), while imports made 14 million dollars (17.5 million dollars in the year 2006). The trade balance was negative by over 13 million dollars in 2006.

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