Golovchenko: Belarus, Russia jointly deal with import substitution issues

Belarus and Russia are solving import substitution issues together – as stated by Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, BelTA reports

"Both Belarus and Russia have prepared lists of critical raw products, materials and components which are divided into three categories. The first one embraces [products] in which we already have competencies and can simply increase our supplies to the Russian market. These, for example, include brake systems, various components, aggregates for machine-building enterprises in Russia. We are working to increase output, expand production capacity or buy equipment somewhere. Russia is actively demonstrating interest and willingness to buy much more volumes of our products than before,” Mr. Golovchenko said.

The second category covers products for agricultural machinery, electronics, chemical industry, and other areas. As informed by the PM, Belarus and Russia are developing lists of what needs to be mastered in production. "There are positions that are not yet present in their necessary forms in our countries. Accordingly, we determine who will be responsible for this sphere, and what resources are needed to promptly master such production," he added.

The third category includes products which manufacturing lacks sufficient competencies on the part of Belarus or Russia. "We determine from which friendly countries to export analogue goods or products with similar technical characteristics," Mr. Golovchenko explained.