A billion is not the limit

The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, met with Governor of Russia’s Leningrad Region Aleksandr Drozdenko

belta

The Head of State recalled that during the previous meeting with the head of the region, the goal was outlined — to reach the coveted billion in trade.

“To achieve this, year-on-year supply volumes will have to grow by about a fifth — 20 percent. I believe that the task is feasible in the current situation, and we will definitely not limit ourselves to a billion. This is a provisional guideline. In one of your speeches, you said that the traditional advantages of Leningrad Region bordering on the European Union have become risk factors since 2022. But this situation has been very beneficial to us and actually to Russia too. We will now rely more on ourselves and think how we move forward,” the Belarusian leader emphasised.

In this regard, Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned the recent telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin during which they discussed two major projects, namely joint production and maintenance of aircraft and the construction of a second railway line from Belarus to St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region.
According to the President of Belarus, they are scheduled to meet in Kyrgyzstan in mid-October (the CIS summit will be held in Bishkek) where they plan to discuss these projects in more detail.

“We discussed the joint production of small-capacity aircraft that are in great demand in the Russian Federation. According to the President of Russia, such aircraft can be operated from large airports and remote villages and regions, especially since they can land on the ground,” Aleksandr Lukashenko explained.

Belarus has the necessary skill sets in this field, so the President of Russia proposed to make these aircraft together with the Belarusian side, as well as to expand the production of individual components for the IL-96 aircraft and to service them in Belarus.
“We can do this. Yet, this is a very big chunk of work,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The other project that the two leaders discussed was the construction of a second railway line from Belarus to St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region that will be used to transport large volumes of cargo to Russian ports from where cargo will be shipped to various parts of the world.
“You understand that this is very important for us. We are engaged in port infrastructure development there. But the railway is our bottleneck,” the Belarusian leader noted.
According to the President, these projects have already been discussed with Russian government agencies; a package of necessary documents and materials has been prepared and will be handed over to the Russian Head of State.
In his opinion, Leningraders, with the support of Belarusians, are successfully coping with this problem. The pace of economic development is convincing proof of this.
“With your help, we have redirected logistics and our manufacturers again have the opportunity to trade in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. We will step up our efforts on this front. For many Western politicians, it was a real revelation that the world is much wider than their narrow ideas about it. They decided to act in the Russian way: get into the fight and then see what will come out of it. It turned out that if you are not Russian, this way will not work for you,” the President assured.
Thanks to industrial co-operation, Belarus and Russia managed to make the most effective use of each other’s strengths to achieve technological sovereignty, the President said. 
“This will enable us not only to respond to any pressure attempts by the West but also create a new, healthy competitive environment within our Union State,” 
Aleksandr Lukashenko is convinced.
He gave a simple example: despite the powerful development of the agricultural industries both in Belarus and Leningrad Region, the parties do not compete but successfully find areas where they can support each other.

“Our strengths are production of farm machines and units, grain drying complexes, equipment for feed mills, food products, seeds and much more, and these are our strong suits” the President continued. 

Belarus is actively sharing its best practices with farmers of Leningrad Region, including in the field of veterinary medicine where the parties are taking first steps to develop co-operation.
Of interest to Belarus is Leningrad Region’s expertise in livestock breeding, the production of valuable fish species, and the technology of operating greenhouse complexes.
“In turn, farmers from Leningrad Region may benefit from our experience in cultivating winter barley and rapeseed. I also propose to thrash out plans to increase supplies of Belarusian agricultural machinery, including using regional subsidies, as well as equipment for the processing industry,” the Belarusian leader added.
The President noted the continuation of co-operation in the development of transport infrastructure as an important factor. Belarusian enterprises are actively participating in the construction of the Vysotsky Grain Terminal in Vyborg District, which will have the storage capacity of 210,000 tonnes of grain (the terminal’s design capacity is 4 million tonnes per year).
“I am sure that this project will also be highly beneficial to our friends from Latin America: Brazil, Venezuela and other countries,” the Belarusian leader said.
The President  thanked Aleksandr Drozdenko for his decision to invite domestic enterprises to implement projects in Leningrad Region. One of such projects is the construction of water purification and treatment stations. Belarusian technologies were used in turnkey projects to build 37 such facilities in Leningrad Region.
“I have been told that you have drafted a program to build more than 100 such facilities. Our Development Bank is ready to take part in funding these projects,” the President said.
The projects that Belarus is running in Leningrad Region include the construction of a school for 825 children in Lomonosovsky District of St. Petersburg. According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the government is mulling over the provision of a special export loan.
Speaking about new avenues of co-operation, the Head of State mentioned the participation of Belarusian design, construction and installation organisations in comprehensive upgrade of fuel and energy facilities (boiler houses), in the construction and renovation of heat supply facilities for municipal districts of the region, as well as the supply of Belarusian building materials, road construction equipment, cement, wall materials, prefabricated structures, and bitumen, as well as the exchange of best practices in using advanced road construction technologies.
“Aleksandr Lukashenko proposed not to create parallel (overlapping) capacities to produce goods that can be imported from Belarus. “You and I will always come to terms on supplies, always, and for a long term. Today both of us need to spend money on essential things. Why create overlapping production facilities? And the areas I have listed are related to this issue. Mutual exchange of products is very important… If you need any help, you can count on us, and we can provide it to you, we will definitely do it,” the Belarusian leader noted.
Calling the relations with Leningrad Region exemplary, the Belarusian Head of State emphasised, “We would like to place our primary focus on your region in Russia.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko expressed confidence that given the excellent relations between Belarus and Leningrad Region, the efficiency of their partnership should be higher.


Aleksandr Drozdenko, Governor of Leningrad Region,

“The meeting was very emotional, very sincere and sound. I went out and asked my guys, members of the delegation: ‘Well, are you inspired?” They say: ‘We are charged for successful work for at least several years in the future’. We are doomed, in a good way, to co-operate... It was no coincidence that our current visit began with a visit to the Khatyn Memorial Complex. I thanked Aleksandr Grigorievich for creating a new, very interesting museum. You walk through these halls and come out mentally shocked, with tears in your eyes, you understand what genocide is, what fascism is and why war is terrible. It is terrible because civilians, old people, children, and women are dying. And this attitude of Belarus towards its memory, the memory of generations, evokes great respect.”

Based on materials of sb.by and belta.by