Belarus park called key Silk Road hub

Kiryl Rudy, Belarusian ambassador to China. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The China-Belarus Industrial Park, jointly developed by the two countries, is an important project that will contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative, said Kiryl Rudy, Belarusian ambassador to China.

The park has attracted Chinese companies such as Huawei, ZTE, Zoomlion and China Merchants Group, Rudy said via email before Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's visit to China, which starts on Wednesday.

The ambassador called the project the "most promising area of Belarus-China cooperation" and said it "is bound to become the core" of bilateral economic and investment cooperation.

"Chinese investors have already been building a large regional center here, which will serve the flow of goods from Asia to Europe and in the opposite direction along the New Silk Road," he said.

The aim is for the 90-square-kilometer park, which is 25 km away from the Belarusian capital of Minsk, to become not only a logistics hub but also an industrial and high-tech base, Rudy said.

In a statement the two countries issued in May last year to deepen their comprehensive strategic partnership, China and Belarus said the park "is a strategic project in line with both countries' developmental interests".

According to the statement, China will support competent Chinese manufacturers and high-tech companies to conduct business in the park, while Belarus will offer preferential policies and a good environment for the businesses.

In addition to being an opportunity for Belarus to attract Chinese and other foreign investment as well as up-to-date technologies, the park will serve as an industrial base for China with access to the market of the Eurasian Economic Community and the European Union, said Rudy.

"The realization of all the projects ... signifies a solid contribution of our country toward the Belt and Road Initiative on one hand, and makes Belarus an important transportation, logistics and communication hub on the New Silk Road," Rudy said.

Besides economic and investment cooperation, political ties are also a vital aspect for developing bilateral relations, the ambassador said.

"Over the past 25 years of diplomatic ties with China, the Republic of Belarus has gone a distance which could have taken centuries for other countries," he said. "Therefore, it is important to keep up this level of confidential, unconditioned relations."