Business news

17 Feb 2023

Belarus’ ambassador visits Russia’s Sverdlovsk Oblast

Photo courtesy of the Belarusian embassy

MOSCOW, 17 February (BelTA) – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia Dmitry Krutoi has paid a working visit to Sverdlovsk Oblast, BelTA learned from the press service of the diplomatic mission.

The Belarusian diplomat met with Sverdlovsk Oblast Governor Yevgeny Kuivashev. According to Dmitry Krutoi, Sverdlovsk Oblast remains one of the priority trading partners for Belarus. “The trade of the Republic of Belarus with Sverdlovsk Oblast increased by 52.1% in 2022. In particular, the Belarusian export rose by 63.1%, and import expanded by 39.1%. I believe that this is an excellent result of our joint efforts. At the same time, we need to move forward. Today we will try to identify the areas where we can and should step up our efforts,” he said.

Dmitry Krutoi named cooperation in the manufacturing industry as one of the main points of growth. “First of all, this pertains to the joint production of engines for BelAZ at Ural Diesel Engine Plant and the production of special machines for drilling wells on the MAZ chassis in Verkhnyaya Salda (Sverdlovsk Oblast), new projects involving engines from Minsk Motor Plant, and the mutual supplies of various vehicle components,” the ambassador noted.

“The second avenue of cooperation is the supply of passenger, road, municipal and cargo vehicles. A good example of such cooperation is a joint project to upgrade the Yekaterinburg trolleybus fleet. We are ready to go further,” Dmitry Krutoi assured.

According to the ambassador, another area for cooperation is energy. Power engineers of Belarus and Sverdlovsk Oblast put together a joint council. Mutual deliveries of various types of equipment are under discussion. Cooperation in agriculture holds a lot of promise, too. “In this regard, we reaffirm our interest in increasing the supply of agricultural machinery to the region (our equipment is on a par with similar foreign equipment in terms of quality). This can be done using modern financial tools, like leasing and soft loans,” the diplomat said.