НПО «Планар». Фото: БелТА
Union State State Secretary Sergei Glazyev said that completing import substitution projects in Belarus is a matter of economic expediency. He said this in an interview with TASS.
He was asked about 26 industrial import substitution projects, of which only five are in the final stage.
“There have undoubtedly been successes. The fact that the programmes have not been completed is primarily a matter of economic expediency. The main thing is that there is an opportunity to expand this cooperation, which is yielding many results in the electronics industry, which I already mentioned. It is now difficult to imagine Russian electronic products without Belarusian cooperation.
Belarus has managed to preserve and expand its significant scientific and technical potential. Few people know, for example, that every second television sold in Moscow is produced at the Belarusian Horizont plant. Roughly the same can be said about Belarusian machine tools, trolleybuses, electric buses and agricultural machinery. This range of products, already well known in Russia, is an example of goods produced by the Union State. All of this is the result of joint projects and a combination of our competitive advantages”, he said.
Belarusian officials had previously complained that the use of funds for import substitution projects was not progressing as quickly as expected.
According to Hlazieu, there are also “around 30 investment and cooperation projects” under the credit programme provided by Russia to Belarusian industrial development institutions.
“This area covers virtually all high-tech sectors — the electronics industry, electrical engineering, radio electronics and instrument-making.
The total volume here exceeds 100 billion Russian roubles in loans, which are being translated into the development of cooperation in areas needed by Russian industry today. In cooperation with Belarusian partners, it is possible to produce goods intended to replace imports that we depend on in the field of high technologies, strengthen our competitiveness and expand opportunities for economic growth. This programme is due to be completed this year, and we expect it to continue”, he said.