Business news

MINSK, 5 June (BelTA) – Vologda Oblast will buy over 120 low-floor buses from the Belarusian automobile engineering company MAZ soon. The relevant statement was made by Governor of Russia’s Vologda Oblast Oleg Kuvshinnikov after he met with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on 5 June, BelTA has learned.

Oleg Kuvshinnikov said: “We are interested in buying low-floor buses from Belarusian MAZ. We’ve already bought 30 buses and intend to get another lot of over 120 buses soon.”

A MAZ service center will be opened in Vologda Oblast, too. The relevant agreement will be signed with the Belarusian company today.

The Belarusian engine producer MMZ will also sell its products to the Russian region. MMZ engines will be used to jointly make loaders and excavators. The first batch of Belarusian engines is already on the way to Cherepovets Casting and Mechanical Plant.

The Belarusian company Amkodor continues selling agricultural machines to Vologda Oblast. Apart from that, the company will start selling forest harvesters there. Only imports have been available in Vologda Oblast up till now. “We’ve also agreed to install a simulator in a vocational school in the city of Sokol in order to train forest harvester operators,” added the governor.

According to Oleg Kuvshinnikov, there are plans to buy 20 MAZ road tractors in 2019 for the sake of setting up a transportation and logistics company. “Those are the prospects. Negotiations on them are starting now. If we come to terms, then we will be able to create a major transportation and logistics company in order to deliver machines and equipment, food, various products along the corridor Center – Northwestern Russia – Belarus and into the European Union. We need to substitute vehicles made by Scandinavian producers, which now dominate Russian roads,” said the Vologda Oblast governor.