From Decline to Growth: Belarus Industry, Exports and Union Projects — 7-Month Results
In today’s realities it is not enough simply to grow a good product — it is important to correctly build the entire economic chain. After all, it is precisely such successful examples of import substitution as our watermelons that form a solid domestic market. The next task is even larger in scale: to launch new investment projects and to enter external platforms with one’s own goods.
These very guidelines were examined in detail in the Government this week. The main directions for the country are growth of exports, development of tourism and, as a consequence, an increase in people’s incomes. In parallel the accent is placed on quality of life: this is large-scale construction of rental housing and the renewal of up to 5 thousand kilometers of roads annually. In a word, the foundation for sustainable development of the economy is being created already now.
How are the key sectors feeling today, and at the expense of what will we add growth? Correspondent of “Pervy Informatsionny” Svetlana Lukyanuk asked this of Belarusian Economy Minister Yuri Chebotar.
According to him, by the results of July the rate of GDP growth amounted to 5.4 percent, and for the seven months — 102.1 percent with an increment of 0.6 percentage points. “This is an impressive result,” he noted. Attention is fixed on the improvement of the qualitative parameters of the economy: real incomes of the population are growing above the forecasted 8 percent, investments exceed the planned 4 percent, and exports have reached 114 percent of the planned level. “We are increasing both physical volumes and price parameters. As we planned, the reorientation toward the countries of the Far Arc, Asia, and the CIS countries. These tasks are being solved by the branch specialists. And practically we are implementing those tasks that we set both in the target plan and in the forecast,” Yuri Chebotar emphasized.
Industry: from decline to growth
“Analyzing the work of industry, we focus attention on productivity, quality, and efficiency. Over the 7 months industry has exited the trajectory of decline, with growth of 101 percent of industrial production. In the pure month almost 5 percent. But for us the key is the increase of profitability and profit. Because the own funds of the organization are the possibility of investment and development. Today these are the main directions that we set before the branch specialists. In principle, the same approaches for us next year as well,” the Minister of Economy of Belarus said.
Russia remains the key trading partner of Belarus. Exports to this country grew by 20 percent at the expense of all groups of goods, first of all foodstuffs. However, the accents are shifting: investment cooperation is coming to the forefront, the head of the economic department noted.
Together with the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation the preparation of measures on the main directions of Union construction for the next three years is being completed, Yuri Chebotar related. On the agenda are investment and integration projects, questions of market access and the removal of remaining barriers. A new element has become the concept of the “Union State commodity”: BelAZ and MAZ were the first to enter this agenda, and a decision has been taken on the crediting of such goods at the expense of corresponding compensation mechanisms. Similar decisions, the minister is confident, have already been taken by the Russian colleagues as well, which will give additional stability to the bilateral relations.