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" " %23*,. - 4" 5 4 )*)* " . ! / 0 ! - 1 Boris Zalessky Vector of the partnership - China Collection of articles 1 2 Table of contents Topical issues of media support of regional interaction ....................................... 5 New stages of strategic partnership and media ................................................... 13 Unprecedented high level of relationships and media ........................................ 23 Comprehensive strategic partnership and media ................................................ 33 Regional aspects of comprehensive strategic partnership and media ................. 43 Comprehensive strategic partnership - the way to innovation and investment .. 53 Silk Road Economic Belt in the context of a comprehensive strategic partnership ................................................................................................................... 65 New formats of interaction between regions ...................................................... 75 Towards joint innovation creation ...................................................................... 85 Connections between regions are expanding ...................................................... 95 Decisions of the cooperation committee as a topical media topic .................... 103 Scientific and technological vector of all-round strategic partnership ............. 113 Development engine - regional cooperation ..................................................... 121 3 4 Topical issues of media support of regional interaction Successful integration of the Republic of Belarus into the global economic space becomes an important factor in the globalization of international relations to ensure sustainable development of the Belarusian state. One of the actual vectors of movement towards the set goal is "consistent deepening of strategic partnership relations with China". 1, bringing the scale of economic interaction with it in line with the level of political relations. Indeed, China, being Belarus' key strategic partner in the Asian region, now occupies a special place in the system of Belarusian foreign policy priorities, since the Belarusian-Chinese relations have long ago acquired "distinct features of strategic partnership, confirming the parties' serious focus on long-term securing mutual interests across the entire spectrum of bilateral and international policy issues2. This is explained by the fact that "the dynamic development of the Belarusian-Chinese relations is conditioned by the common principles of domestic and foreign policy and coincidence of views on the most important issues of international relations3. The Republic of Belarus and the People's Republic of China reached the level of strategic partnership in 2005, when they adopted a joint declaration. This document noted that ties and cooperation in trade and economic, scientific and technical, military, educational, tourism and cultural, social security and information fields have become closer and more fruitful, reflecting the huge potential and wide prospects of cooperation between the two countries, and also contained a provision that "the parties support economic entities of both countries in their desire to actively develop cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, encourage the activation of direct cooperation between the two countries.4 In other words, from the beginning of the strategic partnership, the parties began to pay close attention to interregional cooperation as one of the most important factors in the development of bilateral relations in all spheres of activity, which can and should play an important role in increasing the volume of trade and economic cooperation. 1 National security concept of the Republic of Belarus [Electronic resource]. - – 2010. - URL: http://www.mod.mil.by/koncep.html 2 Priorities and directions of foreign policy activities [Electronic resource]. - – 2011. - URL: president. gov. by/press46194.html#doc 3 Belarus and countries of Asia and Africa [Electronic resource]. - – 2011. - URL: www.mfa.gov.by/bilateral/asia_africa/ 4 Joint Declaration of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Belarus [Electronic resource]. - – 2005. - URL: www.fmprc.gov.cn/rus/wjdt/gb/t225267.htm 5 In the Republic of Belarus, the regional policy "is aimed at the most efficient use of the opportunities of regions, taking into account the specifics of climatic, economic and human resources"5. But among the main problems of regional development in our country are the weak involvement of administrative districts and small and medium-sized cities in foreign economic activity and the low level of development of "such forms of foreign economic relations as interregional"6. Therefore, the new quality of social and economic development of Belarusian regions should be linked primarily to the improvement of their competitiveness both nationally and internationally, which is largely due to the integration of regions into the global economy and the development of their cross-border and interregional ties. That is why the main emphasis should be placed on involving administrative districts and small and medium-sized cities in foreign economic activity, which includes further development of interregional cooperation. For successful coordination of cooperation between Belarusian and Chinese regions, the most important basic document was the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the principles of cooperation between local executive and administrative bodies of the Republic of Belarus and local governments of the People's Republic of China signed in 2005, which contains an agreement to actively promote bilateral interregional cooperation and "to conclude 7appropriate agreements". It should be noted that the first steps to organize systematic regional cooperation between Belarus and China were taken back in 2002, when the Plan of Activization of Belarusian-Chinese Trade and Economic Cooperation through the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chinese Committee for the Promotion of International Trade for 2003-2004 was developed, which provided for the assignment of specific Chinese provinces to each of the six regional branches of the BelCCI and the establishment of direct contacts between regional authorities of the two states. A year later, cooperation agreements were signed between the BelCCI regional branches and subcommittees of the CCIMT: Minsk and Guangdong Provinces, Brest and Yunnan Provinces, Gomel and 5 Basic provisions of the Program of socio-economic development of the Republic of Belarus for 2011- 2015 [Electronic resource]. - – 2010. - URL: http://law.sb.by/1002/ 6 Philosophy and Ideology of Life Activity in Belarus: Theoretical Foundations of Anti-Crisis Model and Mechanisms of its Implementation // P.G. Nikitenko [et al.]; National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, In- t economic. - Minsk: Belarus. science, 2009. - – W. 571. 7 Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the People's Republic of China on principles of cooperation between local executive and administrative bodies of the Republic of Belarus and local governments of the People's Republic of China [Electronic resource]. - – 2005. - URL: http://www.belaruschina.by/ru/belarus_china/legal.html. 6 Leonin Provinces, Grodno and Gansu Provinces, Mogilev and Jiangsu Provinces, Vitebsk and Shandong Provinces. New strategic impulses to the interaction between the regions of Belarus and China were given by the seventh meeting of the Belarusian-Chinese Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation held in November 2005, at which it was noted that the establishment of large-scale regional cooperation is a significant reserve for intensifying bilateral trade and economic relations. This conclusion was supported at that time by the experience of Russian-Chinese and Kazakh- Chinese interregional cooperation, which at that time became the most important factor in significantly increasing the mutual trade turnover of the said countries. At that time, the relations between the regions of Belarus and China had not yet seen any significant progress. Thus, the parties came up with the idea of developing a long-term program of Belarus' participation in the development of the Chinese western regions and restoration of the industrial base of the northeastern provinces, which was reflected in the adopted Memorandum of the seventh session of the Commission: "In the field of regional cooperation - ensuring the expansion of direct contacts between the regions of the Republic of Belarus and the People's Republic of China, both at the level of local authorities and business circles8. This included the supply of Belarusian agricultural and road equipment to Chinese regions, provision of engineering services, participation in the modernization of the machine park, establishment of joint production facilities, development of service base for Belarusian equipment. The large-scale tasks set in the middle of the first decade of the new century for the development of the Belarusian-Chinese regional cooperation have sharply revived the contacts of the parties at the level of provinces and regions, cities and districts. Dozens of visits of the parties