OREANDA-NEWS. On September 25, 2008 Chairman of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, during his visit to Belarus, met with Belarusian First Vice Premier Vladimir Semashko and agreed about the need for increasing bilateral investment.

They also focused on concrete projects on mutual investment and urgent steps for their implementation, according to the bank's press service.

Poroshenko and Semashko stressed their readiness to bolster the removal of the existing obstacles in a free trade area to boost trade turnover.

According to the forecasts of the Belarusian Embassy in Ukraine, trade between the countries can grow to USD 4 billion in 2008.

In 2007, mutual trade reached USD 3 billion, while in 2006 it exceeded USD 2.5 billion.