ON OCTOBER 25, THE NORTHERN CAPITAL OF RUSSIA HOSTED THE RUSSIAN-BELARUSIAN BUSINESS FORUM "UNION HORIZONS. BELARUS – ST. PETERSBURG DIALOGUE", ORGANIZED BY THE BELARUSIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY AND THE UNION "ST. PETERSBURG CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY" WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE WORKING VISIT OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS ROMAN GOLOVCHENKO AND THE 14TH MEETING OF THE BUSINESS COOPERATION COUNCIL OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS AND ST. PETERSBURG.
St. Petersburg is one of the key economic partners for Belarus, occupying one of the leading positions in terms of trade turnover among the regions of the Russian Federation. The strategic location of the Northern Capital, its developed infrastructure, as well as long-standing historical and socio-cultural ties create unique conditions for mutually beneficial cooperation.
St. Petersburg is an important center of trade and investment, which is actively developing industry, including mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, and information technology. In recent years, the volume of trade between Belarus and St. Petersburg has increased significantly, indicating the growing interest in joint projects. To make an example, in the first half of 2024 alone, trade grew by 4.5 percent, totalling more than one and a half billion dollars.
Food, as well as industrial goods and petrochemical products dominate in Belarusian exports. There are supplies of construction and finishing materials, clothing and textiles, woodworking products. The range of exported goods is constantly expanding.
Besides, St. Petersburg acts as a kind of a transportation and logistics hub through which Belarusian products are distributed to other regions of Russia.
Thus, the parties have much to offer for joint projects in various spheres and industries, including sanctioned imports substitution. Discussion of the achieved results and search for new promising directions is one of the tasks of the Business Cooperation Council of the Republic of Belarus and St. Petersburg, which is headed by the Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko and the Governor of the Northern Capital Alexander Beglov.
The 14th
meeting of the Business Cooperation Council was held in the city on the Neva River on October 25. The Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was represented by its Chairman Mikhael Miatlikov.
The agenda of the meeting included discussions of the results and prospects of the development of trade and economic, scientific, technical and humanitarian cooperation, in particular, interaction in the industrial sphere and joint projects, cooperation in housing and utilities, transportation, medicine and pharmaceuticals, science.
The Council meeting resulted in the signing of a package of mutually beneficial documents.
For several years, it has become a tradition to accompany the Business Cooperation Council meetings with business forums organized by the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
This year has been no exception. Within the framework of the meeting, the Russian-Belarusian business forum "Union Horizons. Belarus – St. Petersburg Dialogue " was held.
The event was opened by welcoming speeches of the heads of the Chambers – the forum organizers: Mikhael Miatlikov and Vladimir Katenev. The speakers noted the positive dynamics of trade and economic cooperation between Belarus and St. Petersburg, the growing interest of business in deepening partnerships, as well as the importance of holding bilateral business events.
The agenda of the business forum was rich. Topical issues related to logistics, foreign economic activity optimization, principles of cooperation with trade networks, peculiarities of entering the food market of St. Petersburg, intellectual property protection, opportunities to get financial support for export and joint projects, and advantages of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange were discussed.
During the forum, bilateral commercial documents worth over 1 billion Russian rubles were signed for the supply of Belarusian knitwear, microelectronics, metallurgical products and foodstuffs to Russian partners.
Following the official part, the forum participants – representatives of more than 30 Belarusian enterprises and more than 60 large companies of St. Petersburg – continued their work with productive B2B-negotiations on specific cooperation projects in the spheres of industrial production and mechanical engineering, food, light industry, logistics, health resort services, woodworking, electronics, and others.
As the Chairman of the BelCCI noted during the forum, cooperation of Belarus and St. Petersburg is not limited to economic interests: it is also an opportunity to exchange knowledge, technologies and cultural values. Not by chance, the Business Cooperation Council meeting, the forum and other events of the business visit coincided with another event – the Days of Minsk in St. Petersburg, which presented the entire potential of the Belarusian capital, both industrial and cultural. As part of the event, an exhibition-fair of Belarusian goods was organized, which was visited by the participants of the Business Cooperation Council meeting, as well as by the guests of the Russian-Belarusian business forum.
The visit of the Belarusian delegation to St. Petersburg has once again proved the interest of business in cooperation and partnerships. The participants are confident that by joint efforts it is possible to achieve even more significant results that will contribute to the development of a sustainable economy, import substitution and help confronting external challenges.
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