"In October 2021, the NAIP presented the investment potential of Belarus, its logistics capabilities and resources to the business circles of the Sverdlovsk Region," said Dmitry Berezovsky, First Deputy Director of the Agency, opening the meeting. "Now the Russian partners will talk about business opportunities in the Sverdlovsk region, localization of production, preferential regimes."
In his speech, Deputy Minister of Industry and Science of the Sverdlovsk Region Igor Zelenkin outlined priority areas for economic cooperation between the regions and the implementation of joint projects:
"These are the production of electric vehicles, lifting and lifting equipment, road construction engineering, production of consumer goods. The Sverdlovsk Region is also interested in cooperation with Belarus in the production of polymer and composite materials."
Russian partners offer Belarusian industrialists to organize localization of production of high-tech products in the Sverdlovsk region, focused on the Russian market or intended for re-export. Ural also supports the development of bilateral cooperative ties between enterprises.
The Sverdlovsk Region is a key industrial region of Russia, the industrial sector employs 25% of the region's workforce (more than 420 thousand people). The economy is based on mining, metallurgy and mechanical engineering. Belarus is among the top 10 foreign trade partners of the region. For 9 months of 2021, the volume of exports to our country amounted to $ 213 million (an increase of 57% compared to the same period last year). The basis of Ural exports are copper, ferrous metals, equipment for the energy complex.
The parties plan to discuss more substantive economic cooperation in February 2022 in Yekaterinburg– where a meeting of the Business Cooperation Council between Belarus and the Sverdlovsk Region of the Russian Federation will be held.
"NAIP is ready to further promote business cooperation between Belarus and the regions of Russia, including providing comprehensive information on investment projects, providing consulting support and organizing business visits to our country," Dmitry Berezovsky summed up.