MP: Business ties will help Belarus, Estonia improve political relations

       Expansion of business ties will enable Belarus and Estonia to improve understanding in politics, Nikolai Ivanchenko, vice-chairman of the permanent commission on ecology, environmental management and the Chernobyl disaster of the House of Representatives and chief of the task group on cooperation with the Estonian parliament, told reporters. Nikolai Ivanchenko expects a more vigorous inter-parliamentary cooperation between Belarus and Estonian after the election of the new composition of the Estonian parliament. “I think the expansion of business ties will facilitate understanding in politics,” the MP said:
       (record)
It’s time we move on to a new level of cooperation. I think that we will build our common agenda around concrete areas. Belarus is interested development of eco-friendly (green) technologies. It is important that Estonia is a member of the Council of the Baltic Sea States. We would like to join it as an associated member. 
        We would like to see Estonia as a sort of springboard for stepping up our presence in the Baltic region.
Our country would like to adopt Estonia’s practices in electronic government. Also, Belarus would like to study Estonia’s practices in waste collection and treatment.
The MP expressed hope that a Belarus-Estonia intergovernmental cooperation agency will be set up and that the Estonian parliament will help make it happen.