Belarusian ambassador blackmails Lithuania

• 11.04.2012, 10:22

”The money flows cannot take another rout,” the Belarusian diplomat said about the transit of goods via Lithuania.

It is important for Belarus and Lithuania to keep on the dynamic development of trade and economic relations, and the coming international Belarus-Lithuanian economic forum in Grodna can become a new incentive for their development, Uladzimir Drazhyn, the Belarusian ambassador to Lithuania said during a meeting with Lithuanian journalists, as BelTA reports.

In 2005, during the first economic forum in Klaipeda the ambassador claimed the total trade turnover between Belarus and Lithuania to equal $460 mln. In 2011 the total trade turnover rose to $1 bln 160 mln. “This is an intensification of the process – a three-fold growth!” Uladzimir Drazhyn emphasized.

According to the ambassador, during the recent twenty years Lithuania has created an excellent service industry that makes 64% of the GDP. Lithuania earns most of it from goods transit, including a significant amount of Belarusian goods. Last year 13.5 mln Belarusian goods passed through the harbor of Klaipeda. “We plan to increase the amount of Belarusian goods to 45% of the entire goods turnover of the harbor of Klaipeda in the nearest 2-3 years. This is a constructive process and it should not be broken. The money flows cannot take other routs – both parties have done a lot for the organization of cargo and goods transit, especially the Belarusian railway, Lithuanian railway and the harbor of Klaipeda. Total amount of Lithuania-Belarusian services made $565 mln in 2011, and this is not only dollars, but about 12.5 thousand work places, too.”