Excerpts from the transcript:
Alexei Overchuk: Colleagues, participants in the Forum of Russian and Belarusian Regions,
First of all, I would like to greet the forum organisers and participants on the tenth anniversary of this important platform. I fully share the high opinion of the forum, which our presidents expressed in their video addresses.
Cross-border and interregional cooperation is a key pillar and a driving force of our countries’ integration.
The Government of the Russian Federation has been doing everything in its power to create the most favourable conditions for boosting constructive and free communication between our people and enterprises within the framework of the Union State. This is especially important in the current geopolitical situation, when our countries have been subjected to sanctions aggression and unprecedented pressure by the collective West in all areas, political, economic and even in the cultural and humanitarian sphere, considering their attempts to cancel Russian culture.
Our joint efforts with our colleagues in the Belarusian Government are focused on the implementation of the 28 Union programmes approved in the executive order of the Supreme State Council of the Union State in November 2021. By now, the implementation of the integration package has reached 80 percent, and we consider that 10 Union programmes have been fulfilled.
The Russian Government is closely monitoring the implementation of all the Union programmes by the relevant agencies and is working in close cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Belarus.
Our customs services are working hand in hand. We have established and launched the Interstate Risk Management Coordination Centre. Its mission is to coordinate the efforts of mobile [customs] groups and to close our markets to illegal and counterfeit products. We are completing the alignment of our customs legislation based on the Treaty on the General Principles of Taxation on Indirect Taxes. Our integrated system of indirect tax management has started working, and we are creating a supranational tax committee.
Our two countries have also been harmonising their state planning and statistics systems. We have devised a single legal frameworks and principles for promoting competition, and the single Union State consumer rights protection rules are expected to be approved soon.
We launched five information systems for tracking the movement of transport and goods from their producers or from the moment they enter the Union State territory and all the way to the store shelves.
We have made meaningful progress in terms of aligning our transport markets by doing everything to increase the number of air and railway routes. Today, the Russian Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Belarus signed an agreement on air navigation and airport duties and tariffs to ensure that Russian and Belarusian carriers benefit from the same treatment when operating international flights.
We agreed to have a single industrial policy and provide for the mutual recognition of our manufacturing processes. The effort to carry out our joint programmes dealing with import substitution will be a practical step towards expanding manufacturing within the Union State. These programmes include investment projects funded by a loan granted to Belarus for the sum of 105 billion Russian roubles. Some 80 billion Russian roubles have been committed and the projects are underway.
Cooperating on special economic zones holds a lot of promise too. We are seeing notable progress in the tourism sector. In 2022, there were over 120,000 tourist trips from Belarus to Russia, while Russians accounted for over 80 percent of Belarus’ incoming tourist flow. Data provided by Belarus show that almost half a million Russians visited Belarus in 2022. This is largely thanks to the direct air services between our countries, as well as the fact that people can use Mir as a single payment system.
This goes to say that we have been proactive in all key sectors and we are committed to keeping this momentum going.
This is confirmed by high indicators of mutual trade demonstrated by our countries. In 2022, it grew by 12 percent to 3 trillion roubles, which is an all-time record. Between January and April of this year, trade grew by another 11 percent, or by 1 trillion roubles, mostly as a result of reciprocal deliveries of non-energy goods. Belarus was more active in buying Russian metals, chemicals, paper and pulp, medicines, plastic products, electric equipment, pumps, and railway cars. Belarusian exports to Russia included high value-added finished goods, such as farm machinery, ferrous metal manufactures, and increased amounts of food, footwear and textiles.
Russian regions play a significant role in this regard. Between March 2022 and April 2023, 66 constituent entities of the Russian Federation signed 2,717 contracts worth a total of 75 billion Russian roubles to redirect Belarusian commodity exports from the West to Russia as part of the import substitution drive.
With an eye to import substitution, 35 Russian regions signed industrial export contracts worth a total of 31 billion Russian roubles with Belarusian partners. Seventy-four Russian regions have built up purchases of Belarusian goods to over 70 billion Russian roubles.
The geography of Russian-Belarusian inter-regional cooperation continues to expand. The legal framework of cooperation is being strengthened as well. In 2023, the Astrakhan Region alone signed eight documents designed to promote inter-regional ties, with the Krasnodar Territory signing another three. Regions prioritise trade cooperation, agriculture, and infrastructure projects.
Belarus follows up on plans to intensify its interaction with Sevastopol and Crimea. We hope that the new Russian regions will be able to further enrich Russian-Belarusian ties, including by inviting Belarusian companies to rebuild infrastructure in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, and start supplying them with the traditionally high-quality industrial goods and food produced in the Republic of Belarus.
In this context, we welcome the signing by Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Dmitry Krutoi and Acting Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin of a communiqué on developing cooperation in agriculture, engineering, coal production and food supplies on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on 15 June.
There is no doubt that the federal centre is ready to consider and support regional initiatives aimed at expanding cooperation with Belarus, our closest ally.
