VITEBSK /BELARUS/, June 28. /TASS/. The volume of contracts signed on the sidelines of the XI Forum of regions of Belarus and Russia in Belarus’ Vitebsk region is about 30 bln rubles ($338.64 mln), Chairperson of the Council of the Republic (upper house) of the National Assembly of Belarus Natalya Kochanova.

"In terms of the amount of contracts concluded, this year's forum has surpassed all previous records - we have approached the mark of over 1.1 bln Belarusian rubles or <...> 30 bln Russian rubles. In total, more than 250 documents were signed on the sidelines of the Forum," she said.

Kochanova added that within the framework of the forums "over the past 10 years 580 agreements of various levels have been signed and trade contracts have been concluded for the total amount of more than 20.5 bln Belarusian rubles (more than 550 bln rubles - TASS)".

Kochanova also noted that trade turnover between Belarus and Russia in the first four months of this year amounted to 2.9 trillion rubles ($33.62 bln). "The turnover of goods and services between our countries last year amounted to 286 bln Belarusian rubles or more than 8 trillion Russian rubles. In the first four months of this year, the figure reached 101 bln Belarusian rubles or 2.9 trillion Russian rubles. We see that the positive dynamics continues," she said at a joint meeting with her Russian colleague Valentina Matvienko with the heads of regional authorities of the two countries, held in Vitebsk as part of the XI Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia.

Kochanova noted that one of the impulses for increasing the volume of trade between the two countries were the Western sanctions, which, in particular, led to the active development of breakthrough technologies in the two countries.

At the beginning of June, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk announced at the meeting of the high-level group of the Council of Ministers of the Union State that Russia and Belarus plan to increase the volume of trade turnover by 50% by 2030, taking into account the current policy of import substitution and increasing cooperation between enterprises.