Belarus to change geography, choice of exports

Plans have been made to adjust destinations and the choice of Belarus’ export. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the statement at the solemn meeting dedicated to Belarus Independence Day on 1 July, BelTA has learned.

The head of state said that Belarus had stepped up export diversification efforts in view of the shrinking Russian market. “Our new approach to export is as follows: one third has to be shipped to the Eurasian Economic Union, one third to the European Union, another third to far arc countries (Asia, Middle East, Latin America, and Africa). It is the balanced geography of export that will allow Belarus to secure foreign trade surplus by 2020,” said the President.

Alexander Lukashenko pointed out that new high-tech manufacturing is in demand today. “Future belongs to science-intensive industries. They should be the engine of economic development. They should provide jobs to highly-trained personnel and increase the inflow of foreign currency to Belarus,” said the head of state.

“Without doubting the importance of investing in manufacturing I would like to underline that intellectual resources are the most important kind of resources for us. It is this kind that lies at the foundation of the new economy. It is no accident that we plan to coordinate the development of the new economy’s branches with applied and fundamental research and state R&D programs,” said the Belarusian leader. In his opinion, the goals should be furthered through the improvement of the education industry, the quality of personnel training, and better performance of research institutions as part of the modernization of the economy and the assimilation of state-of-the-art technologies.

“They say that those, who are willing, look for opportunities, those, who are unwilling, look for excuses. Today is the time of opportunities,” stressed the President.