Business news

MINSK, 1 August (BelTA) – Chairman of the Council of the Republic Mikhail Myasnikovich met with a delegation of Germany’s Federal State of Saxony led by Sebastian Gemkow, Minister of Justice and Member of the Parliament of Saxony, in Minsk on 1 August BelTA has learned.

Mikhail Myasnikovich suggested discussing the development of contacts between Belarus HTP and Silicon Saxony. “We pay much attention to the digital economy. These are fundamentally new opportunities. They can yield very good results both for business communities and public administration,” the speaker stressed. He invited German companies to take a more active part in the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park Great Stone.

For his part, Sebastian Gemkow noted that Belarus has a reputation of an IT-country.“It would be a great idea to combine efforts and produce computer equipment in Silicon Saxony with software developed in Belarus. Thus we can offer turnkey solutions for different industries,” he said.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the prospects of cooperation in personnel training and development of humanitarian and inter-parliamentary contacts.

In October 2017 Mittweida hosted the first Belarusian-German Economic Forum. The second one is due to take place in November, also in Germany. Mikhail Myasnikovich suggested holding the third forum in Minsk in 2019. Sebastian Gemkow supported the idea and invited the Belarusian parliamentary delegation to visit Saxony.

Germany is one of Belarus’ leading foreign trading partners. In 2017, the bilateral trade totaled $2.8 billion (up 25% from 2016). In January-May 2018 the trade reached $1.3 billion (up 30.2% from January-May 2017). Germany also among Belarus’ top five investors. Among the most important investment projects recently implemented with the German firms was the construction of a yeast plant in Slutsk by Uniferm. The company went operational in June 2017. The total investment made up $35 million.

German investors show a big interest in the Great Stone Industrial Park. In October 2017, Lanz Manufaktur joined the project as a park resident. The German company plans to produce photodiode elements. Duisport, the logistics operator of the European biggest river port, made part of the group of founders of the Industrial Park Development Company.

Belarus is home to more than 300 companies with the German capital and 90 offices of German companies such as BASF, Siemens, Bosch, Bayer, and Commerzbank.

Operating in Germany are six entities of the commodity distribution network of the Belarusian companies such as BMZ, MTZ, and Belmagistralavtotrans. ASB Belarusbank and BelAZ-Europe (BelAZ’s joint company with Germany’s ITB Ruff Consulting and Estonia's RTE OU) are also present on the German market.