Region

Gomel oblast maintains twin-town relations with cities from 19 countries

GOMEL, 1 October (BelTA) – The Gomel oblast maintains trade, economic, sci-tech, cultural cooperation and twin-town relations with cities and regions from 19 countries, Vladimir Nadtochayev, deputy chairman of the Gomel oblast executive committee, told a conference dedicated to the trans-frontier cooperation between Euro-regions. The Gomel oblast executive committee has signed 33 agreements with the administrative and territorial units from foreign countries; the town and regional executive committees has concluded simialr agreements with 110 administrative units. The Gomel oblast joined the EU trans-frontier cooperation programmes in 2007 and takes part in the two programmes of trans-frontier cooperation of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), namely “Baltic Sea Region” and “Poland-Belarus-Ukraine” designed to run until 2013. The Gomel oblast also develops contacts at the level of Euro-regions. For example, in 2003 the Gomel, Bryansk and Chernigov oblasts signed a cooperation agreement on trans-frontier community “Dnepr Euro-region”. According to Vladimir Nadtochayev, the number of towns and regions of the oblast that establish relations with the territorial units of the CIS and non-CIS countries has been expanding. The Gomel oblast is one of the most rapidly developing regions of Belarus. The oblast lies at the major transport highways that connect the industrial regions of Russia, Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states. There are more than 300 large and middle-sized industrial companies in the region. The Gomel companies account for one fourth of the country’s total industrial output. In 2008 the region produced more than $10 billion worth of products. The region’s leading sectors are fuel, chemical, steel, woodworking, pulp and paper industries. The region accounts for 100% of the country’s annual production of rolled metal, fodder and grain harvesters, windowpanes and extraction of the Belarusian oil and gas. The region possesses up-to-date technologies and production capacities in the engineering and metal processing industries, chemistry and petrochemistry, radio electronics, light and food industries. Gomel is an export-oriented economy and exports three fourths of its production. The bulk of the export is destined for Russia, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Germany, and Poland. The region cooperates will all EU countries. The Gomel oblast mainly exports oil and oil products, ferrous metals, veneer, glass, etc, Vladimir Nadtochayev said.

БЕЛТА