The President of the Republic called for establishing closer business contacts

This morning, President Arnold Rüütel being on a state visit to Poland left Warsaw for Bialystok where he, at noon, opened a Polish-Estonian economic forum. In his opening words, the President called for seeking for and capitalizing on those advantages which Estonia and the Voivodship of Podlaskie have for developing their mutual relations. "I believe that Estonia's and Podlaskie's enterprises have many different possibilities to trade with each other. Polish businessmen can bring their products via Estonia to northern markets and Estonian businessmen, in turn, via Poland their products south," the President noted, and continued: "At the same time, it is frequently a problem for border regions that many are passing through but only few are coming to a stop there. The Estonians know the name of Bialystok well, but the majority of them have seen it only through car windows on their way to Warsaw or farther. In Estonia, we have a similar kind of the problem with tourists. Thus, the tourists have not yet spotted all the interesting areas neither in Estonia nor in Poland, although Podlaskie for instance, as for its beautiful nature, reminds me of my home country."