Opinion: Industrial cooperation helps create thousands of jobs for Belarusians, Russians

“Today the level of industrial cooperation between the two countries is much higher than several years ago. The Western sanctions prompted us to deepen bilateral cooperation. Closer contacts are bearing fruit. Industrial cooperation helps achieve technological sovereignty of the Union State,” he noted.

Yuri Zolotarev added that industrial cooperation creates thousands of new jobs for Belarusians and Russians and ensures stable growth of manufacturing output in the Union State. And this helps efforts to improve the living standards of citizens of both countries.

“Today the two countries are running the import substitution program. The program incorporates nine important areas, including microelectronics, production of elevators and automotive equipment, and light industry,” said the Russian trade representative.

He recalled that Russia had allocated a RUB105 billion loan to implement import substitution projects in Belarus.

“Nineteen projects have already been agreed upon, ten are undergoing approval procedures. It is gratifying that we exchange delegations on a regular basis. Last week, in particular, a roadmap for interaction in the machine tool industry was signed,” he said.

The trade representative added that Belarus and Russia managed to swiftly redirect their foreign trade flows into new promising markets through new transport and logistics routes.

“Belarus actively uses the Russian logistics infrastructure, which allowed the country not to lose export revenues in the wake of the illegal closure of Western markets,” Yuri Zolatorev concluded.