Business news

1 Feb 2022

Lukashenko: Belarus-Saint Petersburg economic cooperation recovering well

MINSK, 1 February (BelTA) – Economic cooperation between Belarus and Russia’s St. Petersburg has been recovering at a good pace, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Saint Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov in Minsk on 1 February, BelTA has learned.

As the head of state noted, the results for 2021 show that the economic cooperation between Belarus and Saint Petersburg bounced back. The trade in January-November 2021 already surpassed the trade of 2020. "Most likely, we will hit $1.7 billion in trade. That was the trade we had before the pandemic," the president said.

The head of state mentioned the projects to build the residential "symmetrical" quarters: Saint Petersburg in Minsk (has the symbolic name "Petrovsky Shipyards") and the Belarusian quarter in Saint Petersburg. Aleksandr Lukashenko believes that these projects, in addition to their direct purpose, have a very strong image effect and urged to complete them within the next few years (the first facilities of the Saint Petersburg quarter in Minsk are slated for commissioning in July 2022).

The president emphasized the positive transformations that have taken place in St. Petersburg recently and shared his impressions of the city. "I saw them with my own eyes when I was in St. Pete," he said. “I was flying in a helicopter, saw everything. The city changed for the better before our eyes."

"I think that the city will become even better, and we are ready to participate in this," he added. In particular, the meeting discussed the possibility of supplying Belarusian passenger transport, especially since the Saint Petersburg government is carrying out a large-scale reform make an emphasis on environmental friendliness. "You are doing absolutely right. It cannot be otherwise in the north of Russia," the head of state noted.

Belarus, according to him, plans to deliver about 900 medium and large capacity buses running on liquefied gas to Saint Petersburg by 1 July 2022. "We will fulfill our obligations. Don't even hesitate about this. We very much appreciate and care about our relations, especially in the field of supplies and trade, because our economy is export-oriented," the Belarusian leader said.

The president assured that Belarus is ready to assist in the implementation of the next stage of the reform - the expansion of the use of electric transport. Moreover, Belarus has some achievements on this front. It is planned that the Belarusian mechanical engineering company Belkommunmash will supply almost 100 trolleybuses with increased autonomous running to Saint Petersburg within the next two years.

There is also a proposal to supply trams, metro cars which are produced by the Swiss company Stadler in Belarus. The president also noted the opportunities for increasing the supply of municipal equipment, food products, and elevator manufacture.

In 2021 trade and economic relations between Belarus and Saint Petersburg had positive dynamics. Mutual trade from January to November of last year amounted to about $1.6 billion, which was more than the trade in the entire 2020 when mutual trade was a little more than $1.5 billion. In January-November 2021, Belarus exported goods worth $895 million to Saint Petersburg. Major exports were whole milk products, cheeses, cottage cheese and butter, non-alloy steel bars, specific goods, beef, meat and poultry by-products, plastic containers. The Russian city supplied Belarus with cars, electric motors and generators, beer, metal structures made of ferrous metals, refrigerators, freezers and refrigeration equipment.

Belarusian manufacturers have entities of the commodity distribution network in St. Petersburg. A facility to assemble Mogilevliftmash elevators was launched at the site of OOO MLM Nevsky Lift in 2019.