“We don’t limit ourselves to our closest neighbors.” Expert on the wide geography of Belarusian exports and new markets

Yulia Abukhovich Senior Lecturer, Department of Economic Theory and Marketing, Belarusian State Technological University Asia, Africa, Latin America - Belarus has recently paid close attention to the countries of the far arc. Not only traditional partners, but also new, untapped markets are of interest to domestic exporters. Belarus strives to occupy its niche, offer mutually beneficial contracts, and build strong relationships for the long term. Yulia Abukhovich, senior lecturer at the Department of Economic Theory and Marketing of the Belarusian State Technological University, told a BELTA correspondent about which distant countries are interested in our products

and what prospects we have in these markets. Latin America

- The recent visit of the Prime Minister of Belarus to Latin America speaks of our interest in this region. How do you assess our prospects in these markets and the agreements that have already been achieved? What other countries in the region are of interest to Belarus, what can we offer them ?

- The Latin American direction of foreign policy and foreign economic activity of our state is relatively new, and for a number of reasons this region lags significantly behind other regions of the world in terms of total trade turnover. The geographical remoteness (it is located in the completely opposite part of the planet from Belarus), the lack of specialists, and the unstable internal situation of Latin American countries have an impact.



The beginning of Belarus’ active exploration of this part of the world occurred in the mid-2000s after the next stage of the “left turn,” which was characterized by the coming to power in a number of countries in the region of progressive governments that criticized neoliberalism with its free market policies, privatizations and deregulation. It was then that Belarus developed stable friendly relations with Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. After the failures of left-wing governments in Latin America in the mid-2010s, the implementation of foreign economic plans of the Belarusian government slowed down. Currently, the political pendulum of Latin American states has again moved to the left: a common direction for their actions is being developed on the basis of the so-called Latin American progressivism, designed to solve development problems taking into account the principle of social justice. This brings their approaches closer to ours, which creates favorable conditions for intensifying trade and economic ties and the resumption of large socio-economic projects with the participation of Belarus.

Recently, a government delegation of Belarus visited three states in the region -, and. Cooperation with our country will give them the opportunity to more fully realize their economic potential and more successfully solve social problems, so the interest on their part is really great.

Over the previous two decades, a serious economic foundation had been formed, so it became possible to say that Belarus and Venezuela have begun to restart joint projects in industry and other areas. The capacity of the established production facilities in Venezuela is significant not only for the local market, it is also sufficient for the EXPORT of engineering products to countries with which Venezuela traditionally has good economic relations. In Nicaragua, after a long break dating back to Soviet times, work is , in fact, just beginning, while it is in a purely trade format: contracts for the supply of finished equipment have been signed. Agreements have been reached with Cuba on the supply of the products it needs (tractors, MILK powder), as well as new agreements on cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector, which is traditionally interesting for our countries. We have been implementing a project for a long time to produce medicines from a Cuban company in Belarus, but we want to deepen the localization of the production of these medicines and transfer the relevant technologies. Overall, this is a profitable commercial relationship.

Africa

- At a meeting on industrial development, the HEAD of state said that the future belongs to Africa and Belarus has a foothold on this continent. How are our exporters doing on the African market now?

- Currently, Belarus has established trade and economic relations with most countries of the African continent, and today, first of all, options for expanding the already established trade cooperation are being considered; further growth in the volume of mutual trade is expected. A program for the development of cooperation between Belarus and African states for 2024-2026 was approved. Its goal is to restore maximum export volumes ($400 million) and significantly exceed them. The plans are quite realistic. As was announced at the board of the Ministry of Industry at the beginning of this year, the main task for this year is diversification, that is, the reorientation of supplies to new foreign markets. In particular, it is planned to send about a quarter of export sales to countries in Asia and Africa.



In the future, relations with a number of African countries can reach a new level: investment cooperation, production cooperation, then the creation of new sectors of the economy of these countries, solving their main socio-economic problems with our help. African countries need to improve food production technologies, simple importsfood will not solve their problem, we need to create our own capacities. Following the creation of modern production, intensive agriculture, and ensuring safe living conditions, Belarus will transfer its approaches to production and social know-how to these countries; in fact, we are talking about exporting the Belarusian way of life to distant friendly countries.

- Which countries are most open to us and interested in our products? What niches can we occupy in these markets and how difficult is it to achieve this?

- There are more and more such countries on the continent: Zimbabwe and Mozambique in the south, Kenya in the east, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria in the west, Egypt and Algeria in the north. Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Eritrea, Eswatini and many others are showing clear interest.

Today, Belarus is able to offer goods and services for all major import groups of African countries, as well as begin to create demand on their part for special and dual-use goods and services, and in the future, as demand matures, high-tech products.

The insufficient development of the processing sector of the African economy forces the countries of the continent to purchase a wide range of necessary industrial products on the foreign market. The import orientation of African countries creates positive prospects for our exporters.

It is necessary to take into account a number of features of the existing structure of foreign trade turnover of these countries and the opportunities and restrictions that arise in trade and economic relations with them. The continent's countries' needs for a variety of goods and services of foreign origin are largely satisfied by European and Asian manufacturers. At the same time, the ability of suppliers from other countries to be present in African markets is determined both by the specifics of trade in certain types of products and by the competitive advantages characteristic of a particular potential exporting country.

The economies of Belarus and African countries are complementary. These countries can import engineering products, chemical and petrochemical industries, and basic food products from Belarus , and export tropical crop products and strategic raw materials to Belarus.

Asia

- Of course, the focus remains on Asia. CHINA is one of our main foreign trade partners. What are the dynamics of supplies to this country?

- The Asian region is an absolute priority for Belarus: both as a capacious, promising and rapidly expanding market for Belarusian goods and services, and as a promising source of investment in our economy. Traditionally, the key direction of Belarus’ foreign policy and foreign economic activity in Asia is the deepening of a comprehensive strategic partnership with China. For several years now, China has maintained second place among more than a hundred importing countries of Belarusian goods, with a share of approximately 7% and good preconditions for its further growth.

- How are trade relations developing with other Asian states that are members of the SCO and not only? What new markets are we exploring and which ones can we expand our presence in in the future?

- The visits of the President of Belarus and the Prime Minister at the end of last year, during which the head of state visited the UAE, China and a number of African countries, and the head of government visited Uzbekistan and Vietnam , outlined priority areas of foreign policy in addition to deepening integration with the EAEU countries . Undoubtedly, from this year the activity of Belarusian diplomats and exporters in working with SCO member countries will increase even more. Traditionally good relations with the UAE and Turkey should also be developed.



There are many points of contact with Asian countries, although not all of them import products similar to those produced in Belarus, and some countries are our competitors, for example Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. In this regard, it is interesting to note the sevenfold increase in exports of light industry products from Belarus this year to Uzbekistan, a country that is famous for its garments and was previously perceived exclusively as a competitor in this area. Success was ensured by the use of more progressive forms of economic interaction - industrial cooperation and outsourcing.

In general, in the coming years, the work of Belarusian enterprises will be aimed at not only maintaining exports to RUSSIA and other EAEU countries, but also increasing exports to the far arc countries. Up to 30% of all exports of domestic industry by 2030, according to the plan, should go to these distant countries. In difficult modern conditions, the government of Belarus does not confine itself to its closest neighbors, but continues to build an adapted multi-vector model of foreign trade and systematically expands the geography of exports.

Valeria GAVRILOVA,
BELTA.