Golovchenko: share of import substituting products in Belarus’ industrial production up to 42.7%
Import substitution is the number one task at present – as stated by Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko at a meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers focused on the issues of import substitution and proposals to improve its effectiveness
“This is the engine of the economy. Among other things, is aims to resist sanctions pressure. Accordingly, the issue under consideration is one of the key priorities of the country's development in the near future,” the PM said, adding that, last December, the Government defined strategic directions of work in this direction and worked out specific tasks, “This is the use of the opportunities of integration entities of both the Union State and the EAEU, the increased localisation in conjunction with support measures, the implementation of sectoral import substitution programmes, the development of co-operation both within the republic and with friendly countries.”
Mr. Golovchenko noted that there are already certain results in this direction, “Almost $20bn of import substituting products in equivalent were produced over nine months, or 77 percent of the annual task. The balance of foreign trade in goods under the import substitution scheme is positive: $5.2bn. The share of import substituting products in the country's industrial production increased by more than 3 percentage points – to make 42.7 percent.”
According to the PM, the share of small and medium-sized businesses in the production of such products reached 36.7 percent of the total production to make $2.2bn.
In September, an intergovernmental agreement was signed with Russia on mutual recognition of technological operations carried out on the territory of the Union State. This creates the necessary conditions for participation of Belarusian manufacturers, including in subsidising programmes for state and municipal purchases of machine-building products. On November 16th, an agreement was signed on the provision of special credit resources to finance import substituting investment projects. According to Mr. Golovchenko, scientific organisations have become more actively involved in import substitution.
“A digital import substitution trading platform based on the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange has been created, and there are certain results already,” the PM Minister added.
