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Lukashenka visits Expo 2010 in Shanghai

Alyaksandr Lukashenka who left for China on Saturday visited the World Expo 2010 exhibition in Shanghai upon his arrival, stopping by the pavilions of China and Belarus, said BelaPAN.

Mr. Lukashenka also took part in a ceremony held at the pavilion of the Chinese province of Jilin to inaugurate the establishment of a Belarusian-Chinese research and development center in Changchun that will focus on innovation projects for the two states and third countries.

The Belarusian pavilion at the exhibition occupies a total of 1,000 square meters, with 50 percent of the floor area used by the Belarusian companies free of charge. It neighbors upon the pavilions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Portugal.

From Shanghai, the Belarusian leader headed for Beijing where is scheduled to hold talks with President Hu Jintao on Monday, as well as attend the opening of a plant that will assemble Belarus’ BelAZ dump trucks.

“I’m looking forward to China investing large amounts in our economy and I think we’ll benefit from this,” Mr. Lukashenka in an interview with China’s major media companies before his departure for Shanghai. He noted that he expected his forthcoming talks with the Chinese president to contribute to the “strengthening of positive trends in the development of Belarusian-Chinese cooperation.”

While talking to a large group of Russian reporters in Minsk on October 1, Mr. Lukashenka hailed Belarus’ “strategic” relations with China, saying that Russia was wary of them.
"Some people in Russia express concern over Belarus` relations with China," he said, suggesting that Russia was alarmed by an increase in Chinese investments in Belarus.

"But China is actively coming to the Belarusian market and we are happy with this," he said. "Take the most recent agreement: China is to provide us with a billion dollars worth of soft loans for the modernization of the power grid. And $15 billion more in loans has been earmarked for several dozen more projects. Should we refuse from this situation, from these loans? They are beneficial to us."

China`s investment in the Belarusian economy is projected to total $15 billion this year.