MINSK, August 21. /TASS/. Russia and Belarus are agreeing 12 import substitution projects worth 37 billion rubles (393.2 million US dollars), Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Pyotr Parkhomchik said on Sunday.

"We are implementing 17 investment projects to a sum of 127 billion Russian rubles (1.35 billion US dollars) within our Union State [of Russia and Belarus]. These are the projects that have been agreed by the Belarusian and Russian sides. Additionally, we are agreeing 12 more projects worth 37 billion rubles, which will be considered in the near future," he said in an interview with the ONT television channel.

According to Parkhomchik, the sides have made steps making it possible to shorten the terms of the project implementation. "We have already reduced the terms of the implementation of 17 investment projects to 18 to 24 months. We make swift decisions during engineering and construction works," he said.

Parkhomchik said in early July that the joint Belarusian-Russian import substitution projects that are being funded from Russia’s loan of 1.5 billion US dollars, will be implemented in the next two to three years.

In November 2022, Belarus and Russia signed an agreement on a Russian 105-billion-Russian-ruble loan (1.5 billion US dollars at the November 2022 exchange rate) to finance import substitution projects amid the Western sanctions. The projects will be implemented in Belarus in cooperation with the Russian side.