Flat screen or LCD TV-sets of various types, DVD-players and household and professional microwave ovens are to be manufactured in Belarus and become more affordable. There will also be a Belarusian gas cooker with electric oven.Our import-substitution programme had led to our market witnessing the arrival of 24 new consumer goods — previously not produced in the republic. These include home cinemas and colour TV-sets with analogue-digital processing, modern personal computers, automatic telephone stations and measuring devices for water, gas and electric power.
“Replacing imports with domestic manufactures boosts economic growth,” says Lyudmila Grishanovich, Deputy Head of the Consumer Non-Food Market Department of the Trade Ministry. The country and consumers benefit as this saves budget resources and consumers’ cash. Some Belarusian brands are half the price of their foreign equivalents yet rival them in quality and design. The quantity of home-manufactured goods in the internal market is consistently improving and Belarusian non-food goods now account for over 70 percent of sales. Our food has 87 percent of the market. Over the last five years, our manufacturers have sold goods worth $1.5bn. This is just the beginning but it is already obvious that the terms ‘Belarusian’ and ‘high quality’ are becoming synonymous.
