12 May 2023 14:47

Belarus-Russia trade turnover rose 22% in Q1 - Belarusian PM

MINSK. May 12 (Interfax) - The trade turnover between Belarus and Russia in January-March of this year increased 22% after record growth in the last year, Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko said.

"We have not only contained the economic blow that they tried to inflict on us, but we have entered a completely different development trajectory. A clear confirmation of this is the volume of our mutual trade, which reached a record high last year. It is gratifying that these dynamics are holding up this year. In January-March, we grew 22% compared to the same period last year, which is a good result," Golovchenko said at a meeting in Minsk on Friday with Russian Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov.

A video clip from the meeting was distributed by the press service of the Council of Ministers of Belarus.

Belarusian and Russian "enterprises are connected by very close cooperative relations which are being strengthened for the benefit of the two states. We always say that in each unit of Belarusian production there is a very significant Russian component," Golovchenko said.

Golovchenko also stressed that "we are facing very important tasks of ensuring the technological sovereignty of the Union State and protecting the interests of its national producers." Measures are underway in Belarus for import substitution, and a program is ongoing to strengthen cooperation with Russian enterprises, he said. At the same time, the prime minister called for the speedy practical implementation of the two countries' union program for unified industrial policy. "It is necessary to fill this with real content, and develop and adopt all the documents needed to create an effective framework for a single industrial policy," the prime minister said.

According to the Belarusian statistics, trade between Belarus and Russia increased by a quarter in 2022 to a record $50 billion. Russian statistics show that trade between the countries increased 12% last year to $43.4 billion.