MINSK, 31 July (BelTA) - Belarusian diplomatic personnel are fully committed to achieving concrete results for the country, Minister of Foreign Affairs Maksim Ryzhenkov stated during a meeting with heads of Belarus’ diplomatic missions in Minsk on 31 July, BelTA has learned.
The minister stressed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs clearly understands its objectives: “True patriots are here today. Traitors have no place in our system.”
Maksim Ryzhenkov noted that all presidential directives issued following the July 2021 meeting have been fulfilled. “We have secured growth in both goods and services trade, while attracting foreign investments within established targets. Negotiations on free trade agreements between the EAEU and third countries have been intensified. Comprehensive export promotion strategies have been developed and approved, along with frameworks for multilateral cooperation with faraway countries and directives on bilateral relations with China through 2025.”
“The government has implemented responsive measures against countries and companies imposing sanctions against us, including measures to remove trade barriers, protect domestic markets and business interests, and improve both financial and non-financial export support mechanisms,” the minister said.
The minister reported successful export redirection to alternative markets under presidential directives: “Over four years, we have achieved $50 billion in goods and services exports, nearly reaching targets set in our 2025 social and economic development program.”
The export structure has improved, the minister said. “The share of petroleum products and potash in exports has decreased from nearly 20% to 16%, while high-tech products now account for 5.5% of exports, up from 3.5%. We've also expanded our export catalog by 216 new product lines. Service exports have shown particularly strong growth. IT services have regained their prominent position in our export mix, contributing an additional $600 million in the first half of this year alone. However, this service sector growth has been partially offset by declining goods exports, primarily due to reduced shipments of petroleum products and machinery. When excluding these two categories, exports of other goods - where our diplomatic missions' efforts are clearly visible - grew by nearly $400 million, coming within reach of our 3.4% half-year growth projection,” the minister said.
Maksim Ryzhenkov also identified key structural issues in Belarus' export strategy, particularly the need for greater physical market presence abroad. “While our export value has grown 30% over four years, this increase stems primarily from favorable pricing conditions rather than volume growth, with physical deliveries rising just 6.2%,” he stated.
The minister clarified that market access is not the core problem: “Our diplomats actively pursue every business opportunity and provide real-time market intelligence to domestic producers. The fundamental challenge lies in manufacturing competitively priced goods tailored to specific markets - products that combine high value-added components with innovative features. Market competition keeps intensifying.”
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