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Lithuania interested in investment in Belarus, premier says

Lithuanian companies are seeking to expand to Belarus and make investments, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said in Minsk on Monday, as quoted by BelaPAN.

“Our companies are expanding with their investments, technologies, know-hows and knowledge of European markets. Everybody wins thanks to such investments,” the prime minister told reporters after attending the inauguration ceremony of a hypermarket built in the Belarusian capital city with the participation of Lithuanian partners.

Mr. Kubilius noted “good opportunities” for bilateral cooperation in the energy sphere, mentioning transit shipments of petroleum products and the proposal for the construction of a gas liquefaction terminal.

Lithuania is also ready to share its experience in the nuclear power industry, he said.

Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski said that Minsk was also interested in cooperation with the neighboring country.

He said that he discussed investment projects when meeting with his Lithuanian counterpart in Vilnius two months earlier and that Alyaksandr Lukashenka received this past May a delegation of Lithuanian businesspeople willing to invest in the Belarusian economy.

“In the tough conditions, it is necessary to do everything possible to stabilize the development of our countries’ economies and create new jobs with the help of trade and economic relations,” Mr. Sidorski said.

He praised Belarusian-Lithuanian trade, which he noted increased by 38.6 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2010. The amount of goods that are transshipped at the Klaipeda seaport to go to Belarus exceeded two million tons in the period, he said.

Mr. Sidorski announced plans for launching a fast train service between Minsk and Vilnius. “We have reached an agreement to apply to the EU for assistance,” he said.

He also commented on the two countries’ plans to construct the joint gas liquefaction plant. “We could combine our financial resources to build a gas liquefaction plant in [Lithianua’s] Klaipeda and pump gas to Belarus through a gas transportation network. The 285-kilometer-long pipeline won`t cost much,” he said.