Belarus capital, Minsk, hosted on Tuesday the 9th meeting of the intergovernmental Belarusian-Armenian commission for trade and economic cooperation.

From the Armenian side the meeting was chaired by Finance Minister Tigran Davtyan. During the meeting the sides stated Armenia and Belarus need to apply a systemic approach to the trade and economic relations, BELTA agency reported.

“Since the eighth meeting of the commission, considerable work has been done to boost bilateral economic cooperation. Thus, from 2000 to 2011 the trade between the countries went up 14 times from $2.3 million to $32.4 million,” the agency quotes Forestry Minister of Belarus Mikhail Amelyanovich.

In his turn, Minister Davtyan stressed that the economies of Belarus and Armenia are growing rapidly, increasing industrial, financial and investment capacities.

In January-August 2012 the trade between the two countries totaled $28.4 million, up 60.6% from the same period a year earlier. Export made up $24.1 million (up 57.2%), import came to $4.3 million (up 82.5%).