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Manturov: Russia is set to expand cooperation with Belarus in civil aviation

MINSK, 28 October (BelTA) - Russia is set to expand cooperation with Belarus in civil aviation, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said at a meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in Minsk on 28 October, BelTA has learned.

First of all, Denis Manturov thanked the Belarusian head of state for the opportunity to meet and exchange views on the status of the projects that are on the agenda of bilateral cooperation. You are absolutely right to note that this is the development of the aviation industry in Belarus. It is actively developing today, not only thanks to the Osvey project," Denis Manturov said. “We are actively cooperating with the civil aviation plants in Belarus in terms of the production of components. This applies to both the Il-76 and Tu-214 aircraft. I expect that this trend will continue on its way, and we will expand the line-up of aircraft and components."

Denis Manturov stressed that Belarus has very highly-qualified specialists: "Belarus has the technologies and, most importantly, teams of people who are ready to implement this project."

According to Denis Manturov, the parties are set to discuss joint areas of import substitution, or, in other words, the joint technological independence of Belarus and Russia from Western countries. "Indeed, this is more than RUB100 billion in loans provided by the Russian Federation in many sectors of industry. These are microelectronics, mechanical engineering, metallurgy, and chemistry. This will be a really good contribution to our common efforts in the Union State to build up competencies and industrial potential," Denis Manturov noted. He described  the meeting with the Belarusian president as an opportunity to compare notes.

The president thanked Denis Manturov, the Russian government and the president for Russia's financial contribution to many joint import-substituting projects. "There are such landmark, large-scale projects as the Osvey aircraft project. This is a new page for us. We are grateful to you for this. Maybe the era of aircraft building in Belarus will begin with this airplane," the Belarusian leader said. 

As it has been reported, Belarus and Russia are implementing a joint investment project to develop a 19-seat Osvey aircraft and organize its batch production at 558 Aircraft Repair Plant. The parties have settled the main issues regarding the organization, financing and implementation of the investment project, authorized bodies, the intellectual rights and the volume of Russia’s orders for fuselages and aircraft with 558 Aircraft Repair Plant. All this makes it possible to create conditions in Belarus for the development of the aircraft industry.

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