MINSK, 31 January (BelTA) – Belarus’ Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Parkhomchik told students and the staff of Belarusian National Technical University about the performance of the domestic manufacturing industry and plans for 2024 as he spoke at a dialogue platform on the election campaign, BelTA has learned.
The industrial sector generates 27% of Belarus’ GDP, Piotr Parkhomchik noted. "This is a very large figure. The manufacturing industry employs more than 700,000 people," he said.
In recent years, the industry has not only retained, but also dramatically upgraded its unique capacities, the deputy prime minister emphasized. “A testimony to that is the level of equipment produced by our flagship companies. This process never stops. Today this is a signature feature of Belarus. Our industrial goods are known far beyond our country. It is very important that we were able to build on what we inherited from the great power - the Soviet Union. Our industry kept working hard to get where it is now. The development stage was a bumpy road. We have successfully coped with almost all the difficulties. Today our industrial products are in demand not only inside but also outside our country,” Piotr Parkhomchik said.
2023 was a good year for the industry, the deputy prime minister remarked. Both the government and industrial enterprises hit almost all the targets set for 2023. “It was an interesting year, a year of opportunities for the industry minister, heads of industry concerns, company chiefs, and also an opportunity for those who receive industry-related education and want to get jobs that are most in demand in the country today,” the deputy prime minister said addressing the students.
Piotr Parkhomchik noted that ‘technological sovereignty’ has become a buzzword. According to him, the recent events helped Belarusian companies to understand that they should be competitive and independent, and gave them a fresh impetus to keep growing. Working towards this goal has had a positive impact on the entire industry. Over the past three years, a large number of new products have been developed to replace imported goods, and their technical and design characteristics are in no way inferior to foreign ones. They are featured at scientific and industrial exhibitions. Examples include a battery-powered dump truck working on hydrogen and mixed fuel as well as a BelAZ unmanned dump truck, a new line of MTZ tractors, as well as new products by the BelGee automobile producer.
The deputy prime minister noted that the microelectronics sector is another booming industry in the Belarus-Russia Union State. “A development program for this industry until 2030 has been passed. It is very important that we have found common ground with our Russian partners and started collaborations that provided our enterprises Integral and Planar with an order portfolio for several years ahead. Today these enterprises have orders for almost two years. It is very important that they develop and produce new products. This helped push wages up," he emphasized.
Piotr Parkhomchik also touched upon the work of the Horizont plant. “Last year, the number of TV sets produced there exceeded 3 million. The minister [Industry Minister Aleksandr Rogozhnik]) has set the goal for this year to produce up to 4 million TV sets,” he noted. “Appetite comes with eating. The market finds its consumer,” he said.
The deputy prime minister added that a number of issues have to be addressed in machine tool manufacturing. “Here we have also joined forces with Russian partners; an extensive roadmap has been signed. There are issues with control systems or, to put it simply, software. We depend on other countries’ solutions. Today we need to come up with our own solutions - from simple things to very sophisticated ones. This is the task for the industry and I think that we will see the first results in the near future,” said the deputy prime minister.
Piotr Parkhomchik noted that Belarus is also actively promoting domestic production of cars with the help of Chinese partners. “A unique BelGee plant was built between Borisov and Zhodino, it has some remarkable technologies and competencies. Over the past year, it rolled out almost 68,000 passenger cars, 52,000 of them were exported to Russia. This is no small feat. The company is moving towards the next stage, which is localization of production of component parts,” he said.
All in all, industrial output in Belarus amounted to Br187.3 billion in 2023, up by 7.7% in comparable prices. “The manufacturing industry has been the strongest driver of economic growth in recent years. It has been showing solid growth for three years in a row. There is no doubt that the positive dynamics will remain in place this year. January figures suggest that the right path has been chosen for 2024,” the deputy prime minister concluded.
