Russia’s Voronezh Oblast governor outlines action plan to hit $1bn in trade with Belarus

In 2023, the trade with this Russian region exceeded $500 million. “It's a good figure. But we should strive for the coveted billion in trade, as we agreed,” the president said. “The pace is good this year too.” The head of the region spoke about the areas that the parties could tap into to promote bilateral cooperation.    

Construction

According to the governor, the region has advanced quite far in the construction sector over the past three years. The region and the capital city have implemented a number of important projects, including those with the participation of Belarus. For example, Belarusian builders took part in the construction of a mega-school in Voronezh, the largest secondary educational institution in Russia. It is designed for almost 3,000 pupils. “We called it the Educational Center Sodruzhestvo [Commonwealth] to highlight the cooperation with Belarusian friends,” the head of the region said.

The city also built a reserve stadium for the local football team. It was commissioned in early June this year and will be inaugurated in a month with the participation of a team from Belarus. Yet, the city also needs a big stadium, because Voronezh has a lot of fans. "We are a football city. We made a decision to build a stadium, on the site of the old stadium. The design work is already underway. Today I suggested teaming up with the Belarusian company Belstroyengineering. We know them well, they have proven themselves as excellent builders. Many organizations look up to Belarusian colleagues  in terms of deadlines, quality,” Alexander Gusev said.

He noted that the stadium is designed for 25,000 seats,  with a good multimedia equipment.

Agriculture and food supplies

Agriculture is one of the main avenues of bilateral cooperation. Voronezh Oblast is one of the leaders in agricultural production in Russia.

The matter is about the development of dairy cattle breeding with the use of Belarusian technologies. Previously, producers in the region were largely focused on the technologies of other countries. “I hope that the experience of Belarusian colleagues will come in handy,” Governor Alexander Gusev said. Today, a very important area is to provide our countries, our agricultural producers with domestic seed material and highly-efficient livestock, both in meat and dairy farming.”

The parties also agreed to continue active cooperation on the supply of sugar beet seeds to Belarus. “We are already zoning certain varieties for Belarus. We are ready to buy winter barley. We have not yet applied such a form of barley cultivation,” the governor said.

The Russian region has been supplying Belarus with large volumes of meat and buying a lot of Belarusian dairy products. “There are great opportunities for cooperation here,” Alexander Gusev said.

Multi-modal centers and aircraft construction  

The governor emphasized big opportunities for cooperation in the industrial sector, as the parties still have a huge untapped potential here, he said.

“We can do more in terms of volumes. So far we have had only mutual purchases - trade relations. We buy a lot of agricultural, utilities and passenger vehicles at Belarusian enterprises. We supply components for Belarusian enterprises,” the head of the region said. “We could make next steps and begin to interact on the terms of cooperation. We could not only complement each other with some elements of the manufactured equipment, but also, perhaps, enter into each other's capital. I think we can consider such forms as well.”

According to Alexander Gusev, there is already such an example. Belarusian partners are building an ecologically oriented enterprise in the special economic zone in Voronezh Oblast. “It will be a good project. I hope it will be commissioned next year,” he said.

Voronezh Oblast is actively developing its machine building sector and is ready to deepen cooperation with Belarus. “We have agreed to create multi-modal centers to service Belarusian machinery, which is now used in our area, and, perhaps, some small assembly facilities. Here we will be working together with the government,” the head of the region said.    

The governor also sees opportunities for mutual growth of supplies in the area of radio and microelectronics. This area has been developed in Belarus since the Soviet Union times. Voronezh Oblast has the relevant competencies as well.

Aircraft industry is one of the most important prospects. This topic has been recently discussed during Aleksandr Lukashenko's visit to Irkutsk. Voronezh also has something to offer Belarus in terms of cooperation. “We also have a large enterprise. In fact, it is one of the world’s three enterprises that can produce wide-body aircraft. We are now working to launch the production of smaller aircraft, including military transport planes. I hope that we will be able to cooperate here as well,” Alexander Gusev said.