Belarus' export to 33 Russian regions exceed $100m

When asked about regional cooperation, Dmitry Krutoi said that this was the most basic area and there were no limits to growth. “Last year was record-breaking in this regard, too: 208 mutual high-level visits. These were presidential meetings, trips of the prime minister, our officials - we have never had such a high intensity,” he said.

“I can say that we have exports of more than $100 million with 33 regions. These are high figures. We do not have such figures with all the countries. Many governors say that they are rediscovering Belarus, they did not even know that we had so many interesting things. Frankly speaking, we also did not know that there was so much useful for us in many regions and so many points of contact,” said the Belarusian ambassador.

According to Dmitry Krutoi, Aleksandr Lukashenko meets personally with delegations from Russia. “This is, of course, a special format. We have had such a practice for many years. And, of course, many thanks for this to our president. It gives the strongest impetus. We have 41 officials in the country assigned to Russian regions. We try to keep track of all the dynamics on a monthly basis, including the meetings and the implementation of the plans. There is even a sort of rating system, who is doing better and worse. There are leaders, such as Belneftekhim. There are outsiders in a sense,” he said.

The ambassador also touched upon the topic of import substitution. “Dozens of cooperation projects are born every year. Small businesses, our flagships, for the supply of the component base, for some products localized for the regional specifics. I am only happy about this. Import substitution is now synchronized between the two countries. The presidents set the most important accents. Last year can be cited as an example. We have already developed a program for the participation of our enterprises in the Russian cooperation projects in microelectronics. The Russian president was in Minsk in December, and the presidents agreed that there should be a project of a similar scale for machine tool industry. During the Belarusian prime minister's visits and meetings with governors, we can see that there will be a large machine tool construction project, specific regions are asking for this program in specific industries,” Dmitry Krutoi added.