The trade turnover between Poland and the Kaliningrad region, Russia's exclave on the Baltic coast, has risen 16 percent in 2013 to reach about $1 billion.
Speaking to journalists, Marek Golkovsky, Poland's consul in Kaliningrad, credited the growth to the recent reopening of a trade and investment mission in the consulate that had been closed due to political tensions between the two countries few years ago, Interfax reported Thursday.
Another driver of trade has been a small-border traffic law signed in 2011, which allows locals in both countries to apply for documents granting them visa-free passage across the border, said Aleksander Milota, head of trade development at the Polish consulate.
Exports from Kaliningrad have risen by 60 percent, Milota said, outstripping the 10 percent growth in Polish products traveling the other way.
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