Lukashenko meets with head of Russian Export Center Veronika Nikishina

The head of state highly praised the role of the center. Export promotion is one of the most important lines of activity in modern life, essential for any state.

"Recently, you have been watching the development of the relations between Belarus and Russia. Your powerful group of companies is at the crossroads of all these relations. You have certain reserves and resources, both administrative and financial, in terms of support of the relations between Belarus and Russia," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

"Therefore, it was very important for me to meet with you and discuss issues. Maybe you have something to offer. You mostly definitely have. You have experience in this regard. We have here Belarus' chief economist [First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Snopkov]. We want him to hear our discussions and to make a lot of efforts to support our cooperation," the Belarusian leader stressed.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also noted the work of Veronika Nikishina in her previous post at the Eurasian Economic Commission, where she was a member of the Board (Minister) for Trade.

“We had a brief meeting once. I remember it very well. It was during the elections to the Eurasian commission. A lot of time has passed since then. You work in the new position,” he said.

“Please convey my best regards to [First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Andrei] Belousov [Veronika Nikishina's husband]. We often refer to him while discussing various matters. He is a notable person. Please, give him my best wishes. I hold him in high regard. You know that. Thank you for coming,” the Belarusian leader said.

Veronika Nikishina thanked for the opportunity to meet. “I represent the group of companies of the Russian Export Center. These are four organizations united into one holding company. Two organizations provide financial support, the other two - non-financial support. Given the strategic importance of trade and economic cooperation between the Russian Federation and Belarus, Belarus is a key country for us, where we implement our entire arsenal of financial and non-financial measures in the interests of Russian and Belarusian companies. All our efforts are meant to benefit our economies,” she said.

“We discussed the ways to maximize the potential and tools to create favorable conditions for the work of Russian and Belarusian companies, Veronika Nikishina told the media after the meeting. "In general, our cooperation and our tools are concentrated in three areas," the head of the export center said.

The first is to directly support Russian non-resource non-energy exports to Belarus by means of cheapening, reducing costs, and finding partners. Over the 10 years of cooperation in this direction, more than $9 billion worth of Russian exports have been delivered to Belarus with the help of such support measures.

The second area came on the center's radar last year, when the mandate was expanded to support imports. "This is the provision of assistance to Belarusian companies that are ready to offer spare parts and equipment for Russian enterprises that are now being created to replace imports and to export products in the future. We have already carried out several such transactions to support Belarusian priority imports for Russia. But we are only at the beginning of the journey. Now we have discussed the new projects in which we will expand our capabilities," Veronika Nikishina said.

The third area is the participation in large and important investment projects, carried out with the help of preferential financing. “We are glad that a number of landmark projects, such as the modernization of Grodno Azot, have already been implemented in Belarus with our financial support. We are currently discussing 17 new investment projects, important for the cooperation between our countries. We can be useful here, as well,” the director general of the Russian Export Center said.

The parties also discussed a number of other opportunities to boost cooperation - from sharing experience and best practices to coordinated actions to support joint exports abroad. “We can already boast projects where our insurance agencies carried out joint transactions to support Belarusian exports in third markets or jointly produced exports. We are ready to share all expanding services of the Russian Export Center with our Belarusian colleagues. This is also one of the areas of cooperation we have discussed today,” Veronika Nikishina said.