Krutoi: export flows of Belarusian goods worth $6.5bn were redirected to Russia from West in 2022

Under the conditions of external pressure, 45 percent of the Belarusian economy found itself under sanctions, and a significant part of export produce in 2022 was redirected from Western countries to the Russian Federation – as noted by Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Dmitry Krutoi during a trip to the Orenburg Region

The Ambassador noted that the issue of reorienting export flows is crucial for the Belarusian economy, given that the export quota of Belarus’ GDP is very large, “Initially, last year, the Government of Belarus set the task of redirecting about $10.5bn of exports from Western countries to other regions. The Russian Federation is number one in this regard, and we redirected $6.5bn particularly to Russia last year: a serious amount. In fact, this happened in nine months,” said Dmitry Krutoi.

The head of the Belarusian diplomatic mission noted that alongside regular trade, work was carried out to reorient the flow of goods under the import substitution programme of industrial, agricultural and woodworking goods.

He said that in order for this trend to become sustainable, the issue of establishing joint ventures between Belarusian and Russian industries has been raised. Two important programmes are aimed at this: on machine tool building and on micro- and radio electronics, signed at the level of the two countries’ governments. A number of projects will be implemented, including in the special economic zones of the Russian regions.

“This includes a further programme for the supply of components to the conveyors of the largest Russian enterprises: such agreements have been signed with KamAZ, AvtoVAZ, Rostselmash, the GAZ group and others, these are about ten large companies. Another important topic is the purchases of Russian state corporations: Gazprom, Rosneft, NOVATEK, etc. Separate large programmes are being drawn up there now, and these are the assembly plants of our well-known brands: MTZ, Gomselmash, BELAZ in Russia,” Dmitry Krutoi underlined.

Ambassador of Belarus to Russia is making today a working trip to Russia’s Orenburg Region. At the talks with Orenburg Region Governor Denis Pasler, in particular, the issue of creating an assembly plant for MTZ and MAZ in the region was discussed.