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Smolensk hosts Belarusian-Russian business forum on cross-border exchange trade

BUCE photo

MINSK, 13 July (BelTA) - Every sixth company from Russia operating at the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange is based in Smolensk Oblast. Aleksandr Bashliy, Head of Foreign Relations of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange, said at the Belarusian-Russian business forum in Smolensk, BelTA learned from BUCE.

In H1 2022, Smolensk Oblast ranked second among all regions of the Russian Federation in terms of the number of companies accredited at BUCE. "Now we have 434 business entities from Smolensk Oblast accredited at the Belarusian exchange. We have more only from Moscow and Moscow Oblast, 954. All in all, 2,871 residents of Russia work on the exchange. In other words almost every sixth Russian participant in exchange trading is from Smolensk," Aleksandr Bashliy noted.

More than a third of all accredited Smolensk companies participate in tenders on a regular basis, including 14 new ones who got registered with BUCE this year, he said. In Belarus, they buy butter and rapeseed oil, livestock meat, whole and skimmed milk powder, raw hides and crushed stone, while Belarusians buy grain and industrial goods from Smolensk Oblast.

"Thanks to close cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the export promotion center of Smolensk Oblast, the amount of transactions made by Smolensk companies at BUCE increased almost three times over  the first half of 2021. Transit transactions, when both the seller and the buyer are not residents of Belarus were on the rise too. Smolensk Oblast made RUB162 worth of transit transactions  second only to Moscow Oblast and Leningrad Oblast. In general, the transit section received an additional impetus this year on the heels of the launch of the import substitution platform, which allows buying import-substituting goods in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union and in China. This tool is actively used by both Belarusian and Russian enterprises," Aleksandr Bashliy added.

The Belarusian-Russian business forum on cross-border exchange trade was hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Smolensk Oblast on 12 July. The event brought together about 40 business representatives from this region of Russia.

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