MINSK, 2 September (BelTA) – A classroom has been opened in the Omsk State Agrarian University named after P.A. Stolypin to let students study tractors made by the Belarusian company MTZ, the Vecherny Omsk newspaper reported.
The local students will be able to get familiar with Belarusian agricultural machines and learn how to operate MTZ tractors. Belarus is the main foreign trade partner for Russia's Omsk Oblast. MTZ products account for a large share of the region's foreign trade. The Omsk university has been cooperating with MTZ for years. The MTZ classroom was opened in the university on 2 September thanks to this cooperation.
Omsk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Burkov said: “Many projects tie us to the Republic of Belarus. An Omsk Oblast delegation visited Belarus last year. We signed a three-year action plan on expanding bilateral cooperation.”
Opening the specialized classroom is one of the measures the plan specifies. At present Omsk Oblast farmers buy agricultural machines mostly in Belarus. MTZ products are popular with farmers, road construction and maintenance enterprises, utilities industry.
Rector of the Omsk State Agrarian University Oksana Shumakova praised the quality of the MTZ classroom. The classroom will be used to improve the quality of training of future engineers. In her words, the classroom is divided into the industrial part and the lab part. The first one will be used for theoretical studies. The second one is subdivided into several sections. Each is fitted with the main parts, components, and modules of agricultural machines as well as diagnostic equipment and measuring instruments.
Other equipment enables online interaction with leading engineering experts from other universities and cities as well as MTZ itself.
In turn, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the MTZ dealerships in Russia, Director General of MTZ Siberia Trading House Dmitry Belaits noted: “Today's machines are totally different from those that existed in the past. Today we sow the seeds of education in order to grow specialists able to operate modern machines tomorrow.”
