New Delhi, Nov 17 ANI: Minister of State for Industry Dr. Ashwani Kumar stressed upon the need to increase the level of trade and economic engagement between India and Belarus on Monday.He was speaking at the bilateral meeting between him and Rusetsky, Minister of Industries, Republic of Belarus in New Delhi today. Dr. Kumar assured the Belarusian Minister of the Government's full support in strengthening trade and economic engagement with Belarus. He told the visiting Belarusian Minister of India's longstanding relationship with erstwhile Soviet Union and invited Belarusian companies to collaborate with Indian companies. He emphasized on the need to increase the frequency of exchange of business delegations and bilateral interactions between captains of industry from both sides. Rusetsky identified heavy engineering, IT, pharmaceuticals and mining and defence sectors as the focus areas for investment in Belarus. Rusetsky invited Indian companies to actively participate in the privatization process of Belarusian industry. Dr. Ashwani Kumar assured him of government's full support to Indian industry to engage in exploring business possibilities in Belarus. Dr. Kumar informed the visiting Minister that despite the global economic slowdown, Indian companies would continue in their endeavours to establish global footprints. Both the Ministers agreed to boost bilateral economic engagement so as to achieve the target of 500 million dollar of trade between the two countries by 2010. ANI