Economic Forum Kicks Off in Saint Petersburg

Business people, experts from global markets, and politicians are gathering in Saint Petersburg this week. At the International Economic Forum, discussions focus on seamless cooperation and equal dialogue. The forum opened today.

The main venue—designed for addressing key financial issues and more—operates nonstop from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Delegations, including Belarus, have their own schedules of meetings and contract signings. The first agreements have already been made.

To showcase the advantages of their machinery, even in summer, companies find snow here. And keeping up with robots is becoming increasingly challenging—technology is advancing rapidly. Throughout the day, participants walk several kilometers across the vast exhibition area, which covers over 200,000 square meters.

This platform fosters extensive dialogue in multiple languages. Today, 140 countries are represented in Saint Petersburg. Watching the lively exchanges, it’s clear that the world is large, and many nations do not want to sever business chains—opposing sanctions and restrictions.

All our partners are here: those with whom we already trade over a billion dollars, cooperatively assembling vehicles, and ready to build and develop new technologies together. Coming to Saint Petersburg means engaging in dozens of meetings over four days, signing agreements, and expressing Belarus’s position in roundtables and thematic discussions.

Earlier this week, a joint commission meeting was held with the Leningrad Region, and an updated cooperation map was signed. We are building a grain terminal in Vyborg, designed to handle up to 5 million tons of grain for export and import. But this is not the only project.

The Rostov Region, a leader in combine harvester production in Russia, emphasizes cooperation, not competition, with Belarusian Gomselmash, focusing on joint creation of necessary parts. Import substitution is gaining momentum. Positive contacts are also being established with our MZKT company.

The Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum is the largest negotiation platform in Eurasia, and this year it is opening doors to new technologies.

The forum is always interactive, with many educational programs. Visitors can even try drone piloting, using realistic simulators available at many Russian universities.

On the international stage, multi-million-dollar contracts are expected to be signed. The final figures on the number of guests and agreement sums will be announced on the closing day. Meanwhile, Belarus is already counting its own deals. The first contact is with a Belarusian cement company, with a deal worth over 1.5 billion rubles—working with a plant involved in large-scale construction projects across Russia. Tomorrow, new documents are scheduled for signing. We are also expecting the head of Belarus’s National Bank, as well as ministers of economy, communications, and energy.

News from here spreads worldwide. The number of journalists is impressive. Topics discussed will include strengthening BRICS partnership, allied cooperation, and synergy between the real sectors of the Eurasian Union—covering both industry and agriculture.