MINSK, January 31. /TASS/. Belarus and Minsk are working on creating a joint commodity exchange market of the Union State to scale up mutual trade and provide for unobstructed access to strategic resources, Press Secretary of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) Roman Yaniv said.

"Chairman of the BUCE Management Board Alexander Osmolovsky and President of the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX) Igor Artemyev discussed the priorities of bilateral bourse-to-bourse cooperation, holding integrated trading sessions on key commodities, establishing common price indicators and joint efforts to create a common commodity exchange market in the Union State of Belarus and Russia," Yaniv said, cited by the SB. Belarus Today news outlet.

The parties agree that the consolidation of commodity exchange markets is an important part of integrating the economies of the two nations and will promote not merely "a rise in mutual trade volumes and strengthening business ties, but also support the unobstructed access to strategic resources and equal conditions of doing business for Belarusian and Russian companies."

An intergovernmental agreement on mutual access to exchange trading for business companies accredited at the commodity exchanges of Russia and Belarus, scheduled for signing in 2024, is expected to become an important step in this area, BUCE said.