Opinions & Interviews

Belarus’ vice premier names areas of cooperation with African countries

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MINSK, 11 September (BelTA) - European countries are pumping off Africa's resources, while Belarus comes to the countries of the southern continent with its technologies, skills to train their specialists and provide maintenance services to the equipment it supplies there, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Parkhomchik said in an interview to Belarus 1 TV channel.

Cooperation with African countries is promising for many states. “Africa is a very interesting region, and many countries are competing for it today. African countries got their independence, but this independence is still nominal, because the countries, which ruled here, still influence the economy, pumping off everything they can get. Our views on Africa are different. We come with our technology, our proposals. We come and do not just sell our technology and equipment - we create technology, train specialists, and try to ensure the best service and support. These people need serious training to operate a tractor, a harvester and other vehicles that are supplied to the regions of Africa,” Piotr Parkhomchik said.

He added that Belarus’ largest trucks helped extract various minerals, which the African continent is rich in. “Our haul trucks are working in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Angola, Algeria, and Morocco. The vehicles are in use and we offer our services. We are absolutely competitive with other manufacturers offering the same equipment for work in quarries,” Piotr Parkhomchik said.

The deputy prime minister named potential new partners of Belarus among the African countries. “We are discovering Kenya. We shipped our first agricultural vehicles there four months ago. Representatives of Kenya have already visited our country. They have so far paid familiarization visits. There was a delegation from Nigeria, and we held an important discussion regarding the supply of our machinery. We are looking forward to a delegation from Morocco within the next month to discuss in detail the supply of machinery to this country. We continue to work with Egypt, Algeria. Sudan is a very interesting destination. In general, there are many countries that show interest in our machinery. Even the distant South African Republic has already received our MTZ tractors. They are tested at the moment, and there is confidence that the supply of our equipment there will increase dramatically,” the deputy prime minister said.

African countries with access to the sea, such as Equatorial Guinea, can also become a hub for promoting Belarusian products to other countries. “This is one of the bridges that will make it possible to promote our products not only for Equatorial Guinea, but also for neighboring countries, especially since the popularity of this state on the African continent is big. We will consider it as a platform for supplying our food products, which we successfully sell. Exports of food products are constantly on the rise. Probably, with the help of African countries we can reach $10 billion worth of food exports, the task the president has earlier set. This task can be fulfilled within the next 2-3 years,” Piotr Parkhomchik said.

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