Expert: Belarus creates its future through hard work in partnership with allies
The sanctions aggression of the collective West against Belarus and Russia did not achieve its goal, with the West’s negative forecasts failing to come true – as noted by Aleksei Avdonin, an analyst with the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Studies, during his talk with Belarus 1 TV channel
The expert noted that for a long time the West believed that only it creates the future for the whole world, “The events of 2020-2022 showed that the Western model of the future is an illusion of deceit. We create our own future through hard work in partnership with our allies.”
The expert drew attention to the fact that over the past two years, 25 import substitution projects – worth over $21bn – have already been implemented in the EAEU, “The Eurasian Economic Commission has already updated the industrialisation map’, covering 158 projects across twenty-five industries – worth over $270bn. Using the potential of import substitution will enable to ensure an annual increase in the EAEU total GDP by 4.5-5.5 percent. By late 2022, the EAEU was already experiencing growth in agriculture – more than 5 percent to a level of $155bn, in construction – 5.5 percent – up to $178bn. In 2022, the growth rate of mutual trade exceeded 13 percent.”
The analyst believes that one of the key priorities for co-operation within the EAEU is to increase the share of mutual settlements in national currencies and expand the use of their own payment systems, “By the end of 2022, 80 percent of mutual settlements in the EAEU were made in national currencies of the EAEU member states. In 2023, the EAEU will pay special attention to improving food security and the level of self-sufficiency in basic types of products. Agricultural production is expected to grow by over 20 percent compared to 2020.”
The political expert noted that according to the statements of the heads of governments of Belarus and Russia, the sanctions aggression of the collective West against our countries did not achieve its goal, with the West’s negative forecasts failing to come true, “The integration of the economies enabled Belarus and Russia to show more stable economic parameters: the West expected that the Russian economy would be ‘torn to shreds’ and the drop would be up to 20 percent, but the slowdown in 2022 is only 2 percent of GDP. Such a success of the Russian economy caused surprise among investors and, most importantly, a desire to return to the Russian market as soon as possible.”
