Business news

MINSK, 9 April (BelTA) – The Belarusian manufacturers with a strong motivation have the potential to ramp up exports to Europe, Belarus’ First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Yevdochenko said in an interview with Director magazine, BelTA informs.

“Although there is fierce competition on the European market, we can and need to work with it. If the Belarusian manufacturers have a strong motivation, they will definitely have the potential to boost exports to Europe,” Andrei Yevdochenko remarked.

The EU market offers huge opportunities as over 500 million EU citizens form a large market of corporate and retail customers, he stressed. “In 2012, our exports of goods to the European Union exceeded $17.5 billion. After a few years of decline, our trade with EU began to grow in March 2017 to show a stable trend. Our exports to the EU went up by 39.2% last year to reach $7.9 billion. The EU’s share in Belarus’ exports increased from 24% to 26.9%,” the official said.

Belarus has given a considerable boost to the export of trucks, non-alloy steel products, timber, chipboards, and potash fertilizers. In monetary terms, the export of oil and oil products has shown the biggest increase (55%).

“Our supplies to the European market have such a systemic problem as the small share of knowledge-intensive high-tech products. Oil products, raw materials, and low value-added products prevail in the export structure,” Andrei Yevdochenko stated.

The products to be promoted to the EU market should meet a certain technological level and satisfy the picky European customers, the first deputy minister believes.

“Unfortunately, we do not have many products meeting high European standards. This is why, apart from recovery in the exports of oil products and fertilizers, we need to launch the production of a wide range of high-quality high-tech products popular among the demanding European customers in order to branch out into the Western markets. This means absolutely different standards, a different design, a different marketing strategy, and a relevant commodity distribution network,” Andrei Yevdochenko added.