Opinions & Interviews

According to Vladimir Semashko, the contracts and agreements signed during the Belarusian-Vietnamese business forum represent a good foundation for stepping up trade and economic relations. In particular, he mentioned documents signed by the Belarusian company MAZ. Contracts for the delivery of 100 MAZ dump trucks worth over $3 million and MAZ buses worth $700,000 were signed in Hanoi on 8 December. An agreement on setting up a MAZ assembly enterprise together with the Vietnamese corporation TMT Motor was also signed. The Vietnamese side believes that those are extremely reliable vehicles particularly in rural areas and they earned good reputation back in the Soviet times.

Vladimir Semashko said that he intended to meet with the Vietnamese industry minister on 9 December. The sides intend to discuss the establishment of at least two enterprises in Vietnam to assemble MAZ dump trucks and buses.

MAZ trucks have been assembled using premises of the Vietnamese corporation Veam since 2009. As of November 2015 the Belarusian company shipped a total of 995 assembly kits. Work has been in progress since 2014 with the Vietnamese corporation Samco to establish an enterprise to assemble low-floor MAZ buses in Ho Chi Minh City. Two pilot low-floor buses were assembled and tested in November 2015. According to the Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus, there are plans to ship 30 buses in 2016. New bus models, which will fit Vietnamese cities better, are in the pipeline.

“I think some groundwork has been done to raise the mutual trade turnover from $170 million this year to $500-700 million per annum. I believe it will be done,” stressed Vladimir Semashko.