By Anna Overinova
Belarusian Horizont Holding and International Unihan Company have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture to produce Toshiba TV sets, during a visit by a Toshiba and Unihan delegation to Minsk. The signing of the agreement is the first stage of collaboration, with companies planning not only to produce TV sets but to participate in a joint industrial park project.
Representatives from Japan share a common goal with Horizont: the desire to manufacture high quality goods for sale within the Customs Union and the CIS. Belarus’ accession to the Customs Union with Russia and Kazakhstan has opened up the markets of these countries. In the course of negotiations, it was repeatedly stressed that Horizont has been expanding across several areas, focusing primarily on producing household appliances and electronics, while creating and supporting industrial parks and development projects.
Today, Horizont is the CIS’ largest producer of televisions and radio electronics, manufacturing over 50 models of tube and LCD TV sets, DVD-players, satellite and cable television systems and household appliances. Horizont is closely liaising with Midea Group — the world’s largest producer and exporter of household appliances — within the Belarusian-Chinese Midea-Horizont joint venture, established in 2008. The company already has two production lines making microwave ovens, with Midea-Horizont’s production capacity exceeding 2 million units per year.
