Plans to attract Samara Oblast SMEs to Belarusian commodity exchange

BUCE and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Samara Oblast signed an agreement on cooperation during the official visit of a delegation of the Russian region to Belarus on 27 June. The document was signed by Eduard Belsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange, and Valery Fomichev, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Samara Oblast. Joint efforts of the two agencies are expected to give an additional impetus to the development of exchange trade between Belarus and Samara Oblast, first of all by attracting small and medium-sized businesses to the Belarusian exchange platform.

“Due to flexibility, mobility, and desire to innovate it is usually small private companies that become the most active participants in exchange trading. By signing a cooperation agreement with the Samara Chamber of Commerce and Industry we expect, first of all, assistance to involve small and medium-sized business in exchange trade. At present 46 Samara companies are accredited at the Belarusian exchange, ten of which came after the BUCE delegation visit to Togliatti in November 2021. This shows a great interest in this exchange mechanism. We only need to continue informing the Samara business community about the possibilities of integrating the exchange instruments into the trade and purchasing activity. With the support of the Samara Chamber of Commerce and Industry we hope to considerably broaden the range of participants from this Russian region,” said Eduard Belsky.

The BUCE and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Samara Oblast plan to draw up a detailed program of joint activities by the end of the year. The program will include in-person and online seminars, presentations, panel discussions and other events aimed at raising awareness of Samara companies about the potential of exchange trade as an alternative way of doing business in Belarus. One of the priority areas will be cooperation in import substitution both in terms of supplies of import-substituting products from Samara Oblast and sales of Belarusian analogues of sanctioned goods to Samara consumers.