Business news

Andrei Kobyakov remarked: “I had to criticize the management primarily for their work on the home market. It turns out they used old tricks to set up sales and service centers, which are known since the Soviet times. But it seems to me that the content created back then has stayed nearly unchanged while we already live in the 21^st century.” As an example he mentioned showrooms of the world’s top car brands, which are located along the Minsk ring road. “Even if you don’t intend to buy anything, you can drop by out of sheer curiosity or for pleasure. Visitors may be willing to buy the products on display later on. There are no such [BelGee] options yet although BelGee cars have been manufactured for several years now,” explained the Prime Minister of Belarus.

In his words, the new factory BelGee is building will be one of the enterprises to ensure the innovative development of the national economy. The factory is designed to make 60,000 cars per annum. It is scheduled for commissioning on 31 December 2016. “We have all reasons to believe it will happen just like that. Anyway, the majority of all the emerging complicated issues concerning civil engineering have been resolved. Both contractors and Chinese investors are resolute to open the factory on time,” stated the Belarusian head of government.

Localization in automobile production is supposed to reach 30% by 1 January 2017. The figure is expected to be as high as at least 50% by 1 July 2018. “Reaching the level of localization we are talking about is a difficult task. It is a tall order primarily with regard to quality and certainly prices. For now our manufacturers are having problems in that regard. Serious restructuring and constant improvements will be needed. But since we want to compete at the global level — and the automobile market means global competition — we should work harder,” stressed Andrei Kobyakov.

“We have never had enterprises with this level of automation and robots. It is a new level for us. But I would like to underline once again: if you fail to constantly put efforts into quality and prices, you will fail to achieve results despite all the good intentions. This is why it is necessary to do your utmost to achieve the results outlined during the development of the business plan,” noted the Prime Minister.