It’s important to speak openly and sincerely with businesses, to avoid the impression of favouritism or discrimination, and to encourage a reputation for mutually beneficial relations
Minsk hosts B2B Belarus-Belgium 2016 business meetings
Belgian businesses are keen to strengthen interaction with Belarusian companies, noted the Director General of the Walloonia Foreign Trade and Export Agency (AWEX), Pascale Delcomminette, at the opening of B2B Belarus-Belgium 2016 business meetings in Minsk.
“It’s been a long time since the last economic mission was organised in 2009, although we’ve hosted various Belarusian delegations. We’re now planning a range of meetings to help Belarusian companies make contacts with partners from Belgium, across various economic spheres,” Ms. Delcomminette underlined. In August 2015, Belexia Belarusian-Belgian Export-Import Agency was established, enabling interaction between our two countries to be strengthened.
She asserts that Belarus and Belgium share a number of similarities, including population size, and that both enjoy open economies. “Our two countries serve as points of entrance to integration organisations: Belarus — to the Eurasian Economic Union, and Belgium — to the European Union. I believe we can develop a number of initiatives on this basis,” summed up Ms. Delcomminette, speaking at the B2B Belarus-Belgium 2016 business meetings in Minsk in early March.
Equipment by Belgian Van de Wiele proves popular at Vitebsk Carpets JSC
Walloonia Foreign Trade and Export Agency (AWEX) worked with Belexia Belarusian-Belgian Export-Import Agency to organise the event, seeking out potential partners for joint manufacture of innovative and competitive goods, for sale globally. Several joint projects are now underway, according to the National Centre for Marketing and Price Study. It tells us that Belarus and Belgium are co-operating in the sphere of electronics, with a memorandum on mutual understating already signed between the above-mentioned Centre and Belgian PRO Marketing SCS. Collaboration is also planned for the promotion of goods and services in Belarus and Belgium and beyond, via online retail sites, maximising export potential. Plans are afoot to facilitate information exchange, and presentation of mutual interests within both states.
The National Centre for Marketing and Price Study is confident that there will be more such joint seminars and other events, helping businesses promote their goods and services to external markets, and facilitating partnership ties, as well as trade-economic co-operation between Belarus and Belgium. Belgian businesses are clearly keen to extend their interaction with Belarusian companies.
Belarus’ Deputy Economy Minister, Alexander Yaroshenko, has invited Belgian businesses to take part in projects at the Great Stone Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park. Speaking at the opening of B2B Belarus-Belgium 2016, he emphasised, “Joint manufacturing of export-oriented products with high added value would benefit both Belarus and Belgium. I feel sure that Belgian businessmen will find joint innovative projects at the Great Stone Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park and at the BelBiograd National Science and Technology Park of interest.”
He praised the genuine interest of Belgian businessmen regarding co-operation with Belarus, saying, “I’m convinced that the majority of scheduled events will be a success and will help develop new promising projects in trade-economic relations, as well as attracting innovative technologies and investments, and promoting public-private partnership.”
Mr. Yaroshenko stresses Belarus’ open economy, commenting, “In the future, our foreign trade strategy will rely on the 30-30-30 formula, which determines the share of Belarusian exports to Russia, EU countries, and the distant arc.”
Last year, Belgium was among the top ten partners of Belarus. “We expect to preserve productive co-operation, developing this, and reaching a new level of trade-economic relations, through joint projects with Belgian partners,” believes Mr. Yaroshenko.
Investment co-operation is a focus for promising liaisons. Apart from progressive investment legislation and preferential conditions for doing business, Belarus sports an advantageous geographical location and has membership of the Eurasian economic space, with a population exceeding 180 million. It offers investors duty-free access to Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as free movement of goods, services, capital, and workforce, across the Eurasian Economic Union.
In recent times, the public-private partnership mechanism has been a focus of the Belarusian state and businesses. The main objective is to raise funds for long-term infrastructure projects (those which have traditionally received budget financing). In this context, the law on public-private partnership was passed in Belarus last year; the corresponding institutional network is now being developed and innovations are receiving the attention of Belgian businessmen.
By Viktor Mikhailov
