The prime ministers of Russia and Belarus discussed integration routes

Bilateral negotiations between the prime ministers of Russia and Belarus Mikhail Mishustin and Roman Golovchenko took place in Moscow on Monday. The heads of government noted the growth in trade turnover between the countries to a record 4.2 trillion rubles. and discussed industrial cooperation projects. Problems have also been noted: Minsk wants clearer agreements on plans for a joint future and complains about the growing share of Chinese equipment in the Russian market that infringes on its interests. The Belarusian side is not entirely satisfied with the “quality” of investments coming from the Russian Federation. Moscow noted that investments in the neighboring economy are being hampered by the recently emerging problem with paying Russian investors income on Belarusian government bonds.

The Prime Ministers of Russia and Belarus Mikhail Mishustin and Roman Golovchenko in Moscow summed up the results of 2023 – the trade turnover of the two countries under sanctions reached a record 4.2 trillion rubles. This is 6.5% more than a year earlier. Mikhail Mishustin noted that 25 joint projects are currently being implemented through industrial cooperation. We are talking about projects in the fields of power engineering, micro- and radioelectronics, the automotive industry, machine tool building, agricultural machinery and pharmaceuticals. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation previously reported that 80 billion rubles were allocated for their implementation. from the funds allocated by the Russian side of the loan.

As it turned out during the negotiations, Belarus is ready to help the Russian Federation in achieving technological sovereignty: Roman Golovchenko promised “3-4 million additional workers, engineering personnel.”

To simplify the interaction between business and government agencies in the common market of the union, on Monday, April 15, an agreement was signed on the mutual recognition of electronic digital signatures – it, in particular, will allow entrepreneurs to participate in government procurement without restrictions.

In Minsk, judging by the words of Roman Golovchenko, they see the need for more “clear agreements” on joint plans. For example, he complained that although the Russian Federation and Belarus “are capable of jointly fully meeting the needs of the domestic market in the sector of agricultural machinery and trucks,” in the Russian truck market the share of Chinese equipment in 2023 increased to 58.8% from 29.5% in 2022 -m, and in the segment of wheeled tractors – up to 58% from 46%.

Let us note that the issue of exports to the Russian Federation worries Belarus – earlier the ambassador of this country to Russia, Dmitry Krutoy, noted that the results of two months of the year showed a decrease of 1.6% compared to last year’s figures, with a growth plan of 2% in the first quarter.

Mikhail Mishustin, however, reported an increase in the export of Belarusian goods to foreign markets through the Russian Federation – in 2023, such transit supplies more than doubled, to 20 million tons. We are talking, in particular, about the transit of petroleum products and fertilizers.

During the negotiations, problems with investments were also noted. On the one hand, the figure is growing – Russia in 2023 was the largest investor in the Belarusian economy with an investment volume of $5.1 billion, which is a third higher than in 2022. However, according to Roman Golovchenko, “the qualitative characteristics of these investments leave much to be desired.” The share of participation of Russian investors in capital is only 2% of the total volume of direct investments from the Russian Federation – at the same time, the share of debt instruments in their structure is increasing and the share of reinvestment is decreasing.

The set of measures signed on Monday to stimulate investment activity, which involves the development of mechanisms and tools for attracting capital and the development of issues related to the implementation of infrastructure projects through public-private partnerships, can increase investments.

We note that a deterrent to Russian investment in Belarus may be the recently emerging problems with Belarusian sovereign Eurobonds – Russian investors complained about late payments on these securities. Last week, Deputy Head of the Russian Ministry of Finance Ivan Chebeskov noted that Minsk is doing “everything possible to fulfill the payment.” In this regard, Mikhail Mishustin noted on Monday that in order to place new Belarusian bonds, it is necessary to repay the accumulated debt.

Evgenia Kryuchkova