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MINSK, 1 March (BelTA) – In an interview with the First News TV Channel, Head of the Belarus President Administration Dmitry Krutoi spoke about Belarus-Russia cooperation prospects within the framework of the Union State, BelTA reports.
Dmitry Krutoi weighed in on the Union State development prospects in the coming three years. “Industry remains the core of our integration and the material foundation for the overall development of the two economies. So, in addition to the traditional sectors and products we covered, the presidents tasked us with exploring robotics as a new key area. They specifically directed us to examine this through the lens of specific enterprises. Consider agricultural robotics: the president wants milking robots to be completely Belarusian, localized, and import-substituting. This is just one example. Russia is pursuing a similar goal, because the core element of industrial robotics is ultimately the software – the ‘brains’. This presents a particular challenge for our IT companies, those engaged in software development. To successfully launch this new market segment, we may need extra support mechanisms and better coordination between hardware producers and software developers,” said Dmitry Krutoi.
He added that participants of the Supreme State Council meeting in Moscow discussed how cooperation in key areas is developing. “Separately, the presidents reviewed the current roadmaps for microelectronics and machine tool manufacturing. We are advancing rapidly in microelectronics. In new market segments with genuine import substitution in Russia, Belarusian companies account for 28%. This is a very high figure. Machine tool manufacturing is experiencing some stagnation. A number of new industries that were supposed to make the Belarusian economy self-sufficient have, unfortunately, made little headway over the past two years. These include shipbuilding and in part aircraft manufacturing – not in terms of component production, but rather in terms of the transition to specific, finished products. There are certain shortcomings here, which the presidents rightly criticized; they asked the governments to significantly strengthen their efforts in this area,” Dmitry Krutoi explained.
Moreover, according to the head of the Belarus President Administration, Aleksandr Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin issued similar instructions for 26 Union State industrial projects. “Only RUB47 billion of the RUB105 billion ruble limit has been used, with just five projects in the final stage. The presidents instructed us to intensify efforts significantly,” he said.
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