04 April 2011, 20:50
Within the official visit to the Republic of Serbia, Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, met Bojan Pajtic, President of the Government of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.
In the course of the meeting, B. Pajtić emphasised that our states have traditionally friendly relations, while our traditional, national and cultural connections "are established in the regions."
According to him, "the lion´s share in Ukrainian-Serbian trade relations is situated in Vojvvodina": 90% of export goods that Ukraine receives from the Autonomous Province. Bojan Pajtić is convinced that Ukraine and Serbia have more spheres for cooperation.
He also announced that Ukrainian-Ruthenian community in Vojvodina counts 5 thousand representatives. "It is not numerous, although administration of the provinces makes everything possible to preserve national and cultural identity of Ukrainian community, namely, assists publishing of Ukrainian books and periodicals, creation of TV programs, etc", he explained.
The Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine expressed his gratitude to Vojvodina for supporting the Ukrainian-Ruthenian community, especially, for arranging the conditions to meet their cultural needs.
He called for "entering new levels of systemic work to cover more spheres than traditional cooperation."
B. Pajtić admitted that most Ukrainian regions had indicated their willingness to work with Vojvodina.
In the course of the meeting, V. Lytvyn called for developing not only economic relations but also cooperation in recreation issues, strengthening collaboration between higher education establishments and youth organizations. "People are the supreme education, they are forming public opinion."
"We feel not only historical but also modern contiguity", he stressed. V. Lytvyn reminded that after the Chornobyl disaster more than 2 thousand of Ukrainian children were able to improve their health in Serbia. "Such tragedy remind us of responsibility, since our work is so brittle", stated the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
V. Lytvyn also emphasised, "There are possibilities in the Ukrainian society to extend horizon of cooperation."
Discussing the domestic situation, V. Lytvyn stated that Ukraine "is solving extremely complicated tasks the other countries used to come across earlier." "We should accumulate experience of other states to receive positive results. There are no simple decisions, we should adopt global challenges that can not be accepted by countries separated from the rest of the global community", he admitted. "We expect cooperation of systemic character with other states, regions, European community, since we are solving common tasks of the European integration", explained V. Lytvyn.
B. Pajtić asked Volodymyr Lytvyn to invite the Ukrainian businessmen to visit the biggest in Europe International Agricultural Fair in Novi Sad in May. He explained that Ukraine and Serbia have not only common trade-economic base, but also similar traits in agricultural industry owing to a similar soil structure.
As it was announced before, on April 4-5, V. Lytvyn as the head of the parliamentary delegation is staying with a working visit in the Republic of Serbia.