MINSK, August 21. /TASS/. Minsk considers it promising to cooperate with Moscow on jointly supporting exports to third countries, Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Rumas said at a meeting with Director General of the Russian Export Center (REC) Andrey Slepnev on Wednesday.
"We are ready to move on to practical steps to support exports to third countries, particularly of products with a high share of the Russian manufacturing content," he said. Rumas expressed readiness to discuss Slepnev’s proposals on "financing integration projects, export-oriented projects, import substitution projects."
“You will sign the agreement with our Beleximgarant (one of Belarus’ biggest insurance companies – TASS) today. The government welcomes the agreement, which will help lower the cost of final financing by reducing the number of intermediate parties,” PM said. “And big lines that you have provided - $500 mln for Beleximgarant – that fully covers our demands,” Rumas noted, adding that he expects the agreements with REC to "facilitate the development of trade and export operations."
Prime Minister also noted that the Belarusian system of exports support is distinctly different from the Russian one. "We only focus on financial instruments. Russian Export Center is an agent of the government and together with financial, it provides nonfinancial support, being a kind of a single contact for exporters," Rumas explained.
"It would be interesting for us to discuss the experience of the Russian Export Center and the institutions that are part of it in more detail," he said.
In response, Andrey Slepnev invited Belarusian companies to enter the industrial zone in Egypt, the creation of which is operated by REC. “We are ready to invite Belarusian manufacturers interested in entering the African market to the zone. Apart from location, we also provide opportunities to promote and finance trade operations,” Director General of REC emphasized. Slepnev added that during the current visit to Minsk, the Russian industrial zone, which has already received 12 bln rubles ($182.6 mln) worth of funds from the Russian budget, was presented in the Belarusian Ministry of Industry.
Cooperation agreements
During the visit to Belarus, REC’s Director General signed cooperation agreements with Beleximgarant, one of the biggest insurance companies of Belarus, as well as with ASB Belarusbank.
“We have been successfully working with Belarusbank for several years already, with over 50 deals already financed. The agreement signed today is aimed at making that work consistent, establishing joint mechanisms and instruments that will scale up that support and make it simple and usable for clients,” head of the Russian Export Center said.
In his turn, Chairman of the Board of Belarusbank Viktar Ananich noted that “more than $110 mln worth of investments have been attracted to the Republic of Belarus in the course of the work between Belarusbank and the group of the Russian Export Center.” Today’s agreement with REC will help “enhance mutual cooperation regarding financing the Belarusian-Russian projects in such areas as energy, transport, engineering,” he added.
Huge development potential
Summing up the results of the visit, Slepnev said that REC considers it promising to expand cooperation with Belarus on supporting not only mutual trade and the real sector of economy, but the social sphere as well. “Last year the support of mutual trade with Belarus provided by the Russian Export Center amounted to $1.33 bln. This year we see positive dynamics and are confident that despite the challenges in the global economy, those amounts are not going to be reduced. Probably, they will even be increased,” Slepnev noted.
REC’s Director General stressed the fact that “the political leadership and business partners in the Republic of Belarus appreciate that cooperation.” “We expect particular initiatives and projects expanding cooperation to boost mutual trade and joint work on third markets,” he added. The wide scale of the work between the Russian Export Center and its Belarusian partners “ranges from joint projects on trucks supplies to third markets,” Slepnev noted. “We actively support BelAZ, steel-making enterprises in Belarus with Russian technologies. Now we are eyeing projects in the energy sector, promising projects in the social field,” head of the Center said.
He also stressed comprehensive solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. “Thanks to our integration processes, an absolutely competitive trade regime has been formed between Russia and Belarus. That offers opportunities for small and mid-sized businesses to be widely involved in those processes,” REC’s head said.
According to the figures provided by REC, trade turnover between Russia and Belarus gained 12.1% in 2018 compared with 2017 to $34.373 bln, with exports from Belarus climbing 18% to $21.963 bln and imports rising by 3% to $12.41 bln. Meanwhile, the share of commodities exports to Belarus was 46.2% in 2018 compared with 46.5% in the previous year, whereas the share of non-resource exports, on the contrary, increased from 53.5% to 53.8%. Particularly, non-resource and non-energy exports accounted for 46.7% compared with 46.5% in 2017. Commodities exports from Belarus went up by 17.2% to $10.14 bln in 2018, non-resource exports – by 18.7% to $11.823 bln, particularly, non-resource and non-energy exports added 18.5% to $10.26 bln. Supplies to Russia accounted for 4.9% of Belarusian exports last year compared with 5.2% in the previous year, while the share of commodities exports and non-resource exports dropped from 5.4% to 4.7% and from 5.1% to 5%, respectively.
REC is part of the state development corporation VEB.RF. REC Group incorporates Russian Export Center JSC, Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance (EXIAR) and State Specialized Russian Export- Import Bank (Eximbank of Russia JSC).