Business news

MINSK, 29 August (BelTA) - Belarus will be working to strengthen its presence in the markets of African countries, said Dmitry Kichev, the attache at the department of coordination and planning of the office of foreign economic activity at the foreign economy department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dmitry Kichev attended the meeting to discuss Belarus in the current geopolitical situation, which took place during the Olympia festival for young working people, BelTA has learned.

"Today the African market is, perhaps, underestimated. Nevertheless, experts predict that Africa will be the fastest growing market in the middle of the century,” said Dmitri Kichev. According to him, Belarus adheres to the strategy of a mutually beneficial partnership, opens assembly plants for Belarusian machinery and thus creates jobs for Africans (MAZ trucks in Egypt, MTZ tractors in Algeria and Egypt). In addition, work is underway on the projects to open new assembly plants in Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Ghana, and Mozambique.

The diplomat also spoke about the relations of Belarus with international partners such as Russia, the EU, China, countries of Latin America. For example, more than 40% of Belarusian export goes to Russia. Over the past five years the Belarusian-Russian trade has gone from $23 billion up to almost $38 billion. "Russia remains the largest investor in the Belarusian economy. The annual volume of Russian investments in the past five years amounted to more than $6 billion,” said Dmitri Kichev.

Overall, the share of export in Belarus’ GDP is traditionally over 60%. Last year, it was almost $40 billion. "In fact, over the past nine years we have increased the export value 2.3 times," said the diplomat.

Dmitry Kichev also noted that advancing to new markets is very important for Belarus. It is essential to find new trading partners, to increase the volume of export and develop investment cooperation with foreign states.

The national sports festival of working youth Olympia was held on the banks of the picturesque Isloch River near the town of Rakov, Volozhin District, on 28-30 August. This year, the organizers of the festival “rebooted” the festival and made it a sports and educational forum. Its participants do training and leadership programs, master classes, presentations, and meet with well-known people.

The forum was organized by the BRSM Youth Union with the support of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, the Education Ministry, the Information Ministry of Belarus, the Belarusian Railways, and the Minsk Oblast Executive Committee.