Belarus, Russia to reach record-high trade in 2023

“We will again have a historic volume of mutual trade this year: up 9% for goods and another 6% with our construction, transportation, IT services. This year, the trade between our countries in services will exceed $5.5 billion,” Dmitry Krutoi said.

In his words, the outgoing year also posted a record-high activity as part of regional cooperation: Belarus was visited by more than 100 delegations of various levels from Russian regions. “In turn, Belarusian delegations paid more than 110 visits to Russian regions, including 16 visits of the Belarusian prime minister. There has never been such activity before,” the diplomat said. In 2023, the ambassador himself held more than 80 meetings with the leaders of Russian regions, including on the platform of the ongoing Russia International Exhibition and Forum at VDNKh in Moscow.

“It is regional efforts that help develop cooperative, import-substituting supplies to the assembly lines of our most important machine-building enterprises and give green light to new investment projects,” Dmitry Krutoi said. He cited joint production of trams and electric buses in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, the launch of a plant to produce grain drying complexes in Bashkortostan, the launch of the production of municipal machinery in Kaluga and Smolensk on the basis of MAZ chassis, and the assembly of harvesters and grain carriers in Krasnodar Oblast as prime examples. Multi-brand centers of Belarusian machinery are being built in several Russian regions - in Kuzbass, Primorye Territory, Smolensk Oblast, and a number of others.