Business news

ST PETERSBURG, 28 March (BelTA) – Belarus is eager to develop electric bus routes in St Petersburg, Belarusian Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov noted at the 10th meeting of the Belarus-St Petersburg Business Cooperation Council in St Petersburg on 28 March, BelTA informs.

“We offer to deploy our latest models of innovative electric transport – electric buses,” the prime minister said. A Belarusian electric bus had already been tested out in St Petersburg and had got the thumbs-up, he recalled.

According to Andrei Kobyakov, Belarus has a good track record in St Petersburg as it has supplied Metelitsa trams to the Russian city. These trams have been nicknamed Chizhiks (siskins) by the locals.

The automobile engineering company MAZ is ready to expand the lineup of passenger busses is exports to St Petersburg, including motor buses.

Belarus-St Petersburg trade reached $1.672 billion in 2017, up 19.7% from 2016. Exports stood at $967.4 million (up 18.6%), imports totaled $704.9% (up 21.2%). The trade balance of Minsk enjoyed a surplus of $262.5 million. The major export items were fresh and chilled beef, cheeses and quark, butter, poultry meat and by-products, milk, condensed cream, cream powder, trucks, and sugar. The major import items were cars, engines and electric generators, liquid pumps, pipe fittings, and construction materials from ferrous metals.

In January 2018, Belarus-St Petersburg trade totaled $125.9 million, up 24.7% from the same period a year prior. Exports amounted to $79.1 million (up 21.3%), imports made up $46.8 million (up 30.9%). The trade surplus was $32.3 million.