An archive photo
MOSCOW, 23 April (BelTA) – Cooperation between Belarus and Latin America should be based not only on trade in products, but also on technology exchange, Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus Yevgeny Shestakov told journalists on the sidelines of the 3rd Belarus-Latin America Forum in Moscow on 23 April, BelTA has learned.
“Today, world markets are well provided with a huge amount of finished products, and the markets of North and Central America are much closer and more familiar for our Latin American partners. In this regard, in order to be able to compete with them, we should consider sharing not only finished products, but also technologies,” said Yevgeny Shestakov.
According to him, this pertains primarily to agricultural technologies. “Many Latin American partners are extremely interested in this, including seemingly simple things like the production of potatoes, onions, and other products, since we have traditionally had good competencies in this field since Soviet times,” the diplomat noted.
Yevgeny Shestakov believes that the assembly of Belarusian mechanical engineering products could be another promising avenue of cooperation. “Naturally, this should be economically viable and benefit both partners. This can be achieved if these products sell well enough, because assembling a small amount of equipment does not make economic sense, it is much cheaper just to supply equipment from Belarus,” explained Yevgeny Shestakov.
“This also applies to cooperation in science: Although we have extensive research base, sometimes we do not quite understand in what way we may be of interest to each other. Therefore, the purpose of holding such forums is to introduce the diplomatic corps based in Moscow with non-resident status in Belarus to our largest exporters and technology organizations,” he added.
The 3rd Belarus-Latin America Forum was organized by the National Center for Marketing jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus and was hosted by the Business and Cultural Center of the Belarusian Embassy in Russia. The Belarusian delegation was led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Yevgeny Shestakov. The event brought together the heads of the embassies and trade and economic missions of Latin American countries accredited in Russia and concurrently in Belarus.
At the forum, Belarus presented its light industry, pharmaceutical and food industries and also the most promising projects in biotechnology, production of biopreparations for agriculture and biofertilizers. The program also included presentations on logistics and settlements with counterparties in the countries of the region.
