Government officials and business people of Slovenia and Belarus held a conference in Ljubljana on Monday, with the two sides agreeing to explore more business cooperation opportunities.
The participants from the mixed government commission described their talks as "a good opportunity to boost ties and trade."
Engineering, energy, manufacturing, logistics, transport, and tourism are major possible areas of cooperation, said Stanislav Rascan, director general of Economic Diplomacy for the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Bilateral trade between Slovenia and Belarus exceeded 70 million euros (about 89 million U.S. dollars) last year.
While Germany, Britain, Holland, Poland, and Italy are Belarus' key trade and economic partners, Slovenia is only one of Belarus' 50 regular business partners.
Elena Kupchina, deputy minister of Foreign Affairs for Belarus, said that the emerging Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) offers an opportunity for Slovenia to have access to a market of 170 million people.
The EEU is a political and economic union based on a treaty signed in May 2014 between the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The Union will officially go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015.