ASTANA, 14 October (BelTA) – In terms of import-substituting projects Belarus and Russia are working along two parallel tracks - financial and technical, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia Dmitry Krutoi told the media on the sidelines of the CIS summit in Astana on 14 October, BelTA has learned.
"The domestic procedures to approve the terms of financing these projects are coming to an end," Ambassador Dmitry Krutoi explained. “The presidents talked over the details at their latests meeting. Under the terms of financing, projects will be divided into two pools. The first (priority one) is microelectronics. This is needed now and fast. And the second one is mechanical engineering.”
As the ambassador specified, the industry ministries of the two countries are working on the technical part of the project implementation: "Each project will need a passport describing the technological equipment to be purchased, the target markets." The leaders of the two countries suggested that products made under these projects should be marketed in the Union State, first of all.
Projects, passports, business plans will be further agreed at the level of deputy prime ministers, and then their financing will begin. It is planned to involve two Belarusian banks - the Development Bank and Belarusbank. "As the lending progresses, the relevant resources will be restored by the Russian Federation," the head of the diplomatic mission said.
As BelTA has reported, Russia will extend Belarus a loan to finance import-substituting projects in the amount of more than $1.5 billion. "By the end of the year, we will launch seven projects worth about $330 million, mainly in mechanical engineering," Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said recently.
