The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Embassy in Minsk reported that Iran’s Agricultural Jihad Minister Sadeq Khalilian and his Belarusian counterpart Simon Shapiro signed an agreement in this regard on Friday.

Training technicians and experts, cooperation in agricultural machination and machinery, animal husbandry and race improvement, joint scientific and research activities in production of medicine and vaccines are some of the topics of the bilateral cooperation letter of understanding.

The two sides meanwhile agreed to finalize a quarantine and plants preservation letter of agreement within a six month period.

Khalilian and Shapiro had also on Wednesday in a meeting surveyed the grounds for agricultural cooperation, emphasized the need for implementing the formerly reached agreements, and surveyed the fields for further cooperation.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in December 2009 that Tehran and Minsk were laying the foundations for broader ties and intended to promote relations to the highest level possible.

Also Belarusian Prime Minister Sergey Sidorskiy in a meeting with Iran’s Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani in November 2009 urged the Iranian side to increase the volume of trade cooperation with Minsk.

Noting that the current volume of economic cooperation between Tehran and Minsk stands at about $100mln, Sidorskiy reiterated that the opening of the second Iranian Bank in Belarus should help boost the volume to $1bln.

The National Bank of Belarus registered two Iranian banks, namely the ‘Onerbank’ and ‘Trading Capital Bank (TC Bank)’, respectively in October 2009 and December 2008.

The Belarusian official also expressed satisfaction over his country’s joint investment with Iran in the car industry as well as oil, petrochemical and development projects.

Source : Fars News Agency