Business news

SMOLEVICHI DISTRICT, 19 December (BelTA) - The interest of German companies in Belarus has been growing, Belarus Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Evgeny Shestakov said at the meeting of the Belarusian-German working group on trade and investment held in the Great Stone industrial park on 19 December, BelTA has learned.

“In the past two years we have seen a growing interest in Belarus on the part of German companies. In our opinion, particularly attractive is the Great Stone industrial park in the light of its long-term benefits and preferences,” Evgeny Shestakov noted.

For example, German companies are setting up an innovative facility of composite materials and medical products in the Great Stone park. Duisport Group, the owner and operator of the Port of Duisburg, has become a shareholder of the Industrial Park Development Company.

“That was a landmark event, the importance of which we are yet to evaluate. In my opinion, this is a powerful signal to foreign, especially European, business. In fact, we can see a cluster of German enterprises developing in the park, the project we have repeatedly suggested to our German partners. The Great Stone industrial park will be a very important but not the only place for German investment in Belarus,” said the deputy minister.

According to him, there are plenty of new points of growth and areas for investing efforts of enterprises and businessmen from Belarus and Germany. He cited the German company Polipol as an example. The company has recently launched a modern manufacture of upholstered furniture in Ivatsevichi.

“We see additional prospects for increasing our bilateral economic cooperation in setting up new joint ventures and the entry of Belarusian enterprises into chains of suppliers of industrial semi-finished products and component parts,” Evgeny Shestakov said.

Belarus is also interested in sharing experience with German companies in the transition to a new technological level, widespread introduction of digitalization elements in manufacturing, development of electromobility and related infrastructure.

“The German practices are in high demand in the areas such as energy efficiency in the industrial sector and housing construction, the development of comprehensive urban infrastructure using the smart city model,” the diplomat said.