Russia’s Ufa keen to collaborate with Minsk on machinery supplies, waste management

A delegation from Ufa has been on a visit to Minsk for two days now. The guests have toured Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ), BKM Holding Company, the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, and other sites.

Sergey Kozhevnikov noted that for his delegation, this visit is primarily an exchange of experience.  “We came here to see how the city utilities sector operates, and that is our primary interest. We visited a very impressive enterprise that represents a modern technological chain of garbage sorting, its processing, and its reintroduction as recycled materials into production. The manual labor is maximally reduced; everything is mechanized. We saw how the landfill site itself is organized, because we are currently working on this issue ourselves. We are studying your experience to use it in our own project for the construction of a waste-sorting plant and landfill,” Sergey Kozhevnikov noted.
He added that attention was also paid to the equipment operating in the city, the technologies for city maintenance and cleaning. “Here, everything is certainly at a high level; the city is very clean and tidy,” he said.

Sergey Kozhevnikov noted that they are set to tour Minsk Tractor Plant (MTZ trademark) to arrange for future supplies."We use Belarus tractors everywhere because it is reliable, proper, powerful, trouble-free, and enables us to accomplish urban maintenance and cleaning tasks," he said.

Another topic of discussion was the supply of trolleybuses. “We have a joint project with Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ). These are trolleybuses that are delivered to Ufa's enterprises in a state of maximum pre-assembly. There, they are outfitted and put into service,” Sergey Kozhevnikov said.  According to him, 10 Belarusian trolleybuses are already operating on the routes of Ufa, with more to come. “They are comfortable, the residents like them, and accordingly, this is a project that provides joint forward momentum for the development of our two cities,” he said.

He added that he was pleased that, in addition to business matters, the itinerary included a visit to the Belarusian Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. “We visited the museum and saw how our shared history is being preserved, and how much attention is given to veterans and those events,” Sergey Kozhevnikov noted. “We would like to give momentum to cooperation and tourism, so that our children can travel here, to Minsk, and learn about this history, so they can carry it forward to future generations.’

The first deputy head of the Ufa Administration emphasized that the two cities share a common history and values, which enables them to make correct and prompt decisions.

For his part, Aleksandr Komendant stated that this is not the first meeting in recent years with the friendly region - the sister city of Ufa. Over these days, the two cities have reached agreements on the supply of equipment, with a visit to Minsk Tractor Plant still ahead, and exchanged the experience in organizing waste sorting, operating waste sorting plants, and landfills. “We are pleased that the friendly region may find our experience useful," Aleksandr Komendant said.