Belarus intends to increase exports of logging equipment to Russia

MINSK. Oct 15 (Interfax) - Belarus intends to diversify its exports of industrial products to Russia through new goods, including logging equipment, Belarusian Prime Minister Alexander Turchin said after giving a report to the country's president, Alexander Lukashenko.

"We need not only to look at traditional products that we supply to the Russian market, but to talk about new goods, products that the Russian market needs and that we can produce," Turchin was quoted as saying by the state agency BelTA.

Relevant agreements were reached following a meeting held on Wednesday with Russian Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov, he said.

In particular, Turchin said that exports of logging equipment produced by the Belarusian holding Amkodor to Russia will be increased in the near future. "Russia is extremely interested in their [logging machine] supplies. And it was decided to deliver supplies to the Russian market in a short space of time at the meeting with the [Russian] industry and trade minister," Turchin said.

"This process is, of course, underway, but we need to finalize it very quickly. To start intensive supplies of these machines to the Russian market literally from next year," he said.

A number of problematic issues were discussed at the meeting with Alikhanov, he said. "But we resolved most of them during our meeting today. At the end of the year, a joint board meeting of the two industry ministries will take place. Our colleagues in a broad composition will once again discuss all this in detail, discuss the prospects of our cooperation and find ways to solve certain problematic issues," he said.