Belarus’ Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Andrei Khudyk and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sweden to Belarus Christina Johannesson took part in the opening ceremony.
Andrei Khudyk said: “A short while ago we discussed plans to advance Belarusian-Swedish cooperation in environmental protection with the Swedish embassy. Today we are hosting the seminar on Smart City problems. Representatives of the Belarusian side demonstrated a strong interest in the training seminar Symbio City in Brest last year. Belarus has determined the strategy for the country’s social and economic development in the short term. Environmental protection and the use of the best practices of the international community are high priorities in the document. We are eager to not only improve the overall state of the environment but also reform the approaches to resolving various ecological problems, including waste management. Sweden’s experience in ensuring ecological safety and outstanding accomplishments in the country’s social and economic development are interesting for us. Waste recycling in Sweden is close to 99%. We would like to borrow as much experience from the country as possible.”
Sweden’s experience of waste recycling and using waste to generate energy in the future were high on the agenda of the seminar. The seminar offered a venue for discussing the latest international and national accomplishments in waste recycling as well as changes in the Belarusian legislation on waste management.