Dear Sirs and Colleagues!

The history of friendship and economic cooperation between Belarus and Armenia has its roots lying in the distant past. After gaining independence, our countries cooperate within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On October 10, 2014, Armenia signed an agreement on Armenia's accession to the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC), one of the founders of which is the Republic of Belarus. In all of these formats of cooperation, Armenia and Belarus have repeatedly stressed their commitment to the development and deepening of bilateral relations in all spheres of economy and culture for the benefit of our people.

The leaders of both states have always reaffirmed their commitment to the development of relationship between two countries in practice. It is proved by the fact that among the CIS countries Belarus is Armenia’s third partner after Russia and Ukraine by the volume of foreign trade turnover. Since early 2014, trade turnover between the two countries has exceeded 20.5 mln US dollars.

Belarus major exports to Armenia include trucks, tires, tractors, oil products, construction materials, agricultural produce, paper, cardboard, medicines, furniture and other commodities. Belarusian export to Armenia during 2014 has already totaled to 15.4 mln US dollars, and still has stable growth momentum. It is highly attributed to the effective support to exporting sector of the Belarusian state represented by "Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus".

With a view of developing bilateral relations between financial institutions in Armenia and Belarus in the area of banking services, and to further promote the export of Belarusian products to Armenian buyers, on the initiative of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to Armenia S. N. Sukhorenko, in June this year the management of "Armbusinessbank" applied to "Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus" with a proposal to cooperate between our banks within the framework of export financing and conclude a relevant Framework Agreement. Today we are pleased to note that "Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus" and "ARMBUSINESSBANK" have signed a very important document, a Framework Agreement, which affords Belarusian exporters to receive payment for goods exported to Armenia in due time, while Armenian importers can make the payment for Belarusian goods on beneficial conditions and with deferment period for up to 5 years.

This is the first time that this kind of agreement is being signed between the financial institutions of Belarus and Armenia, and it imposes great responsibility on us. However, we are deeply confident that a large number of commercial agreements for the sale of Belarusian goods will be concluded under this agreement, whereas the customers of "Armbusinessbank" already have keen interest in the Belarusian goods under this project, and are ready to make purchases in the energy, agricultural, construction and other sectors of the economy of the Republic of Belarus.

We are sincerely grateful to the "Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus" for choosing "Armbusinessbank" as a partner bank under export financing program between our two countries and for signing the Framework Agreement, as well as to the staff of "Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus" for preparatory work. We are hopeful that the cooperation between the two banks will be fruitful and mutually beneficial.

Separately, we express our deep gratitude to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to Armenia Mr. S. N. Sukhorenko, for the assistance in signing this Agreement, who makes an invaluable contribution to the development and deepening of friendship and cooperation between our people.