United plans

Minsk and Moscow are building far-reaching plans to strengthen co-operation in key industries in the face of external political and economic pressure.  These issues were discussed in detail during ‘The Union State: Economic integration — development tasks’ expert and media forum dedicated to the Day of Unity of the Peoples of Belarus and Russia. The online event connected the capitals of the two states. Among the participants were well-known politicians, economists, entrepreneurs, scientists, representatives of the media community.

Opening the forum, State Secretary of the Union State Dmitry Mezentsev noted the solidarity between Belarus and Russia and stressed, “We are witnessing a new stage of economic integration between Belarus and Russia. Today we cannot forget about the tasks of increasing the competitiveness of the products of Belarusian and Russian manufacturers and the formation of those proposals that will allow us to expand our presence in new markets.” 


Dmitry Mezentsev noted that anti-Russian pressure has become the dominant feature of the foreign policy of the European Union. He also drew attention to the fact that the West responded to the strengthening of Russian statehood in the 2000s by building up NATO’s military infrastructure, hoping that this behaviour would be ignored,
“They thought we would swallow it the same way we swallowed the loss of a great country and self-respect for a certain period of our history. It did not work out. And suddenly it turned out that private property is just a myth, it costs nothing, it is possible to take large or small property from Russian citizens or from persons with dual citizenship on the territory of ‘civilised’ European countries. It suddenly turned out that the rule of law is worthless, because the political expediency of a momentary conjuncture of anti-Russian pressure is the dominant of the entire foreign policy of the EU countries and allies of this international integral association.”
Belarusian Economy Minister Aleksandr Chervyakov is convinced that our countries will quickly restore the sectors that have been affected by the sanctions, “Sanctions will have an impact. We can already see that. It all depends on how quickly we can adapt to these conditions. Today, everyone in the government of Russia and Belarus is working to make prompt decisions, this is a key issue. Believe me, we will quickly restore those sectors that have been influenced by sanctions.”
As the Minister further noted, Belarus has been living under sanctions pressure for the second year already. At the same time, the country’s economy withstood the impact of all restrictions last year. This year, when the unprecedented volume of sanctions became apparent, plans had to be reformatted in order to withstand the sanctions pressure.” “A completely new agenda is being opened within the framework of the Union State. These are new opportunities and this is a key point. This is where the main potential is concentrated, which we must develop very actively,” emphasised Aleksandr Chervyakov.
The Minister identified four main directions of co-operation with other countries, which should be given attention in the first place.
“The redirection of export flows is a top priority. We have markets in China, India, Russia, countries of the Eurasian Economic Community. Transport logistics is the second direction. We have to decide how we will move the goods so that the transport corridors can carry the entire flow. The third direction is related to import substitution. For Belarus, this is extremely important. Here we have a huge potential for economic development. The fourth point is finance. Experts are now paying special attention to the financial ecosystem. Its independence is at the forefront,” said Aleksandr Chervyakov.
Belarusian Communications and Informatisation Minister Konstantin Shulgan drew attention to the special importance of the digital agenda, “Digital technologies, modern technologies, make it possible to optimise costs and make our products competitive today. We are working very closely on a number of issues, including in healthcare, industry, and other sectors of the national economy together with colleagues from the Russian Federation. Not only within the framework of work on the projects of the Union State, but also in other integration associations. Results are already apparent there.”
Chairwoman of the Economy, Budget, and Finance Commission of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Tatiana Runets is convinced that the sanctions against Russia and Belarus are pushing our countries to deepen integration, 
“Today, the economic integration of the two countries is more important than ever before. We see that the world is changing, and the global economy is also changing. Sanctions against Russia and Belarus are spurring our economies towards greater integration and the development of co-operative ties. Russia is our main strategic partner. Our trade turnover is growing year by year. For instance, it increased by 35 percent in 2021 compared to 2020.”
Tatiana Runets cited the example of the Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia, which is held annually under the auspices of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus and the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia, as an effective tool for interaction.
“We calculated the amount of contracts concluded at the Forum of Regions last year in dollars. But when we broke it down into components, it turned out that 70 percent of the contracts were still concluded in Russian rubles. The fact that we are now converting payments for energy resources into Russian rubles is a very big step towards each other. In the future, we will work on developing common rules for the enterprises of both countries, because only in this case we can talk about competitive products,” said Tatiana Runets.

Based on materials of sb.by and belta.by
Photos by Aleksandr Kushner