Business news

29 Sep 2023

Ambassador: Belarus-Russia trade might reach $55bn in 2023

Dmitry Krutoi

MOGILEV, 29 September (BelTA) – Belarus-Russia trade might reach $55 billion in 2023, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia (vested with the deputy prime minister’s authorities) Dmitry Krutoi said at the meeting of the High Level Group of the Council of Ministers of the Belarus-Russia Union State in Mogilev, BelTA has learned.

“Despite the sanctions, our trade rose by a record of 13-14 percentage points last year,” noted Dmitry Krutoi. “Over the eight months of this year, trade also grew by 13 points, or $3.5 billion. According to experts, our trade in services will amount to $47-48 billion; it will be driven by the transport and construction industries, as well as the IT sector. These sectors will generate $7 billion in trade in services. The overall bilateral trade is well placed to reach $55 billion. This is quite an achievement,” the ambassador said.

According to Dmitry Krutoi, thanks to constructive approaches, the work of the High Level Group has gained a lot of steam since 2021. “Over less than three years, we have held more than a dozen meetings where over a hundred issues were considered,” he noted. “In fact, today the High Level Group is a kind of operational headquarters for removing obstacles impeding our efforts to grow our economies and strengthen the Union State. Let me cite just a few examples of how our work and our decisions impacted important parts of our life: reduction of roaming tariffs, abolition of fees for incoming calls, resumption of air and rail passenger traffic between our countries during the pandemic. All these issues were initially raised with the High Level Group,” he said.

Among the latest achievements is the signing at the Moscow Financial Forum of an important intergovernmental agreement on mutual recognition of bank guarantees for municipal procurement.

“In essence, the document was the culmination of the work that the High Level Group had been doing since 2020,” he continued. “Such examples are many. To ensure digital sovereignty, the leaders of our countries have been consistently working to replace software from unfriendly countries, primarily in industrial sector. In fact, we need to switch to domestic solutions. A very important decision has been made in the field of microelectronics. These projects have really taken off. Another important document, which the High Level Group has outlined as a basic agreement, provides for the recognition of electronic digital signatures by the end of this year. It is a very important decision,” the ambassador said.

According to Dmitri Krutoi, not only economic issues are tackled by the High Level Group, but also humanitarian matters. There are no large humanitarian programs among the 28 Union State documents, but this field will receive an increased focus, he added.