Business news

MINSK, 25 September (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia’s Chechnya have a serious potential for advancing trade cooperation and manufacturing cooperation. Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov made the statement as he met with Head of the Russian Federation’s Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov on 25 September, BelTA has learned.

Promising cooperation avenues were discussed during the meeting. Andrei Kobyakov noted: “We are talking primarily about trade cooperation. It can be increased many times over within the next few years. We are interested in selling to Chechnya our reliable and affordable passenger vehicles, trucks, mining machines, agricultural machines, road construction machines, and utility vehicles. [The Belarusian automaker] MAZ is already ready to help modernize the truck fleet and the bus fleet of Chechnya. With your support we could sell pilot batches of these vehicles.”

According to Andrei Kobyakov, manufacturing cooperation in the areas Chechnya considers a priority can be another avenue of cooperation. “[The Belarusian agricultural machinery manufacturer] Bobruiskagromash could set up an assembly enterprise in Chechnya in accordance with the agreement signed with the Chechen Agriculture Ministry. The manufacturing sites have been chosen. Stages of the project’s implementation have been determined. Your support for this joint initiative is necessary for continuing this work,” Andrei Kobyakov told Ramzan Kadyrov.

Andrei Kobyakov stressed that Belarus and Chechnya should advance other projects, too, for instance, the delivery of equipment and components by the Belarusian holding company Automotive Components to Chechen automobile industry enterprises.

“Cooperation in agriculture taking into account your plans to modernize it is the third avenue of cooperation. I am convinced that you will be interested in the experience of our specialists and our R&D for agribusiness such as the assimilation of cutting-edge technologies in the making and processing of agricultural products, the establishment of dairy farms, the delivery of modern milking parlors, crop husbandry, pedigree livestock farming, and veterinary science. Belarus makes a wide range of agricultural machines and equipment. We can sell all of them to Chechnya. We are ready to share the experience of creating agrotowns, ready to participate in programs on developing social infrastructure and utility networks in rural areas,” said the Belarusian head of government.

Apart from that, Belarus sees prospects for cooperation in civil engineering and utilities industry. “Belarusian organizations have worked in other regions of Russia in the area of road construction, designing and construction of homes and infrastructure and are interested in taking part in such projects in Chechnya. We can also sell road construction machines, utility vehicles, construction materials, and lifts,” said Andrei Kobyakov.

The prime minister noted that Belarus-Chechnya cooperation avenues are not limited to what had been mentioned. “Their number can be much larger. It can include healthcare, education, tourism, and other spheres. We count on serious invigoration of our interaction at the level of executive government and business circles,” concluded Andrei Kobyakov.

The Belarusian head of government stated that direct ties with Russian administrative units represent the foundation of trade and economic interaction and the foundation of relations between Belarus and Russia. “We highly appreciate your concrete steps on establishing partnership relations with Belarus, which resulted in the signing of the intergovernmental agreement on trade, economic, scientific, technical, and cultural cooperation during the recent Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia in Moscow. There is an interest in taking our cooperation further. We can only welcome it. It is now important to fill this agreement with concrete content and projects of mutual interest. With this in mind we suggest working out and signing an action plan for 2018-2020 in early 2018 in order to implement the agreement. The action plan will have to specify promising avenues of our cooperation and agencies responsible for it,” summed up Andrei Kobyakov.

In turn, Ramzan Kadyrov stressed that establishing Belarus-Chechnya ties is a new stage in efforts to build up Belarusian-Russian relations. “This process is of great significance for further social and economic development of our countries. We have a huge potential for trade, economic, scientific, technical, and cultural cooperation. We place emphasis on joint efforts to produce merchandise and provide services. Interesting investment projects are being developed, including in civil engineering and agriculture,” said the head of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation.