MINSK, 9 December (BelTA) – Belarus offers African countries cooperation in the services sector, agriculture, and mechanical engineering, Chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BelCCI) Vladimir Ulakhovich told BelTA following the videoconference “Africa-Belarus: current situation and new guidelines for joint business projects”.
“We have successfully cooperated with Africa, steadily expanding cooperation. Although this year has not been our best, Belarus still gained access to new markets of African countries in 2020. Belarus actively cooperates with Egypt,” Vladimir Ulakhovich noted.
According to him, in terms of business, Belarus is primarily keen to cooperate with African countries in three main sectors. “Firstly, it is mechanical engineering and the development of relevant infrastructure. For example, there is an assembly plant for making Belarusian machinery in Egypt. Belarus is in talks over similar projects with several other countries. The second cooperation area concerns the manufacturing of food products, agricultural technologies and machines. Belarus is ready to offer the whole package of services to its African partners,” Vladimir Ulakhovich said. The third avenue of cooperation is the services sector, namely education, healthcare, and IT, he added.
“In addition, Africa has rich mineral deposits, from uranium to oil. This is African countries' national wealth, but they need partners to help extract it. They are willing to cooperate with Belarus in this field,” Vladimir Ulakhovich said.
The videoconference was planned long ago and was initially timed to the Belagro expo, he said. It was supposed to be divided into two parts. “We intended to showcase Belarus' capacities to African partners and then give them an opportunity to make a presentation for Belarusian companies. Unfortunately, the pandemic made us change our plans. We decided to hold the conference online. The Belarusian part of the event, which was attended by Belarusian diplomats, took place in November. The second part of the event featured presentations of nine African countries and was attended by representatives of 17 embassies,” Vladimir Ulakhovich said.
More than 200 Belarusian companies registered to take part in the conference on 9 December. They asked questions, put forward proposals and projects – over 200 in total. “Some questions have already been sent to representatives of appropriate countries. The questions we received during today's event will be analyzed and then sent to the other party. We do not want to overlook any proposal from our enterprises,” he added.
