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Eastern Europe
August 4, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
the president’s policies. Eleven percent said they somewhat disagreed with it, and just 3% do not support it completely,” the pollster said, reports Russian news service Tass.
Meanwhile, a reaction from the EU on the new sanctions bill is also anticipated. European Com- mission President Jean-Claude Juncker called upon colleagues in Brussels to “stand ready to act within days” should the additional US sanc- tions be “adopted without EU concerns being taken into account”, the Financial Times reported on July 24, citing a note prepared for a commis- sion meeting.
The law could create a rift between the US and the EU, as some European countries are still de-
Belarus, China mull $500mn investment fund, closer cooperation
bne IntelliNews
Relations between China and Belarus continue to develop as Beijing uses the small Eastern Euro- pean state as a bridgehead into Europe.
The two governments are considering setting up a $500mn investment fund to attract residents to their flagship joint venture, the Great Stone lo- gistics and manufacturing park just outside the capital of Minsk.
The project is due to cost some $1bn in total and will act as a transport and production node for goods flowing from east to west as part of China’s massive One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project. The first phases are already complete and include
pendent on Russia for energy supplies and fear that the new sanctions could affect such projects as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
In the end of July German federal grid regulator Bundesnetzagentur has decided to exclude projects related to the planned Nord Stream
2 pipeline in the 2026 development strategy of Germany’s gas transportation system.
Bundesnetzagentur reportedly shelved five connections to the projected pipeline worth €4.5bn due to the projects’ “instability” and lack of a definite decision on its construction, thereby “protecting German consumers from unnecessary spending”, the authority said.
The Great Stone industrial park is the flagship Belarus-China oint venture
warehouses and logistics firms. In the next phase the operators are hoping to attract more manu- facturers. A total of 15 companies have already made the park their home.
The latest addition to the family is Ruchtech, which will begin construction of a $30mn plant to develop and manufacture automated laser systems for macro- and micro-processing of metal items, al- loys, and composite materials will start this year.
As of today, there are 11 resident companies in the park with Chinese capital, one with Austrian, one with American, and two with Belarusian par- ticipation.