Business news

MINSK, 28 April (BelTA) - Belarusian and Czech manufacturers need to join efforts to promote sales, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to the Czech Republic Vasily Markovich said in an interview with the Czech newspaper Parlamentni Listy, BelTA has learned.

"Belarus and the Czech Republic produce a larger quantity of goods that could be successful on the markets of each other. We recommend that the Belarusian and Czech producers of goods who operate trading and distribution networks should collaborate to promote mutual sales. This may be the setting up of joint stores that would sell products that are not competing but related (clothing, footwear and accessories). This may also be the mutual promotion of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, confectionery and other products,” Vasily Markovich said.

According to him, in the modern world promoting high-tech products requires significant expenses on creating a service network. Given the limited resources Belarusian and Czech companies prefer to focus on the countries with high-capacity internal markets. They do not take into account that in a number of cases it is easier for small and medium-sized companies to gain a foothold in such countries as Belarus and the Czech Republic rather than the United States or China where the competition is much tougher.

"Transnational corporations hold a large share in the retail of the Czech Republic, which contributes to the saturation of the market with the goods from all over the world. But in some cases, many small and medium-sized companies manufacturing high-quality and promising goods cannot get their products to the shelves of these retail networks because of the rather complex and costly process of conclusion of contracts. Due to the small trade turnover, small shops are not always in a position to undertake the costs on registration of imported goods, advertising,” the Ambassador said.

According to Vasily Markovich, the Belarusian retail network is also undergoing a period of concentration. The share of transnational corporations in big trading networks is not that big which makes it easer for Czech companies to work on the Belarusian market.