Share of import substitution products in industrial production up – Hałoŭčanka

December 27, BPN. The share of import substitution products in manufacturing increased by three percentage points to 42.7 percent in January-September 2022, Prime Minister Raman Hałoŭčanka has told the Presidium of the Council of Ministers.

“It is encouraging that the share of small and medium businesses in the manufacturing of these products has reached 36.7 percent of our regions’ total production. Small and medium-sized businesses manufactured $2.2 billion worth of these products,” Hałoŭčanka said.

In the nine months, $20 billion in import substitution products were manufactured (77 percent of the annual target), with a trade surplus of $5.2 billion for import substitution goods, the prime minister said.

Import substitution is one of the country’s short-term priorities, he added.

In January-October, Belarus’ foreign trade decreased by 6.4 percent year-over-year (exports by 3.6 percent; imports by 9.1 percent), the National Statistics Committee said. Trade in goods amounted to $61.3 billion (exports, $30.9 billion; imports, $30.4 billion).

Belarus is to receive a $1.5 billion loan from Russia for import substitution projects. The government plans to use the money to re-equip 14 enterprises, Hałoŭčanka said following the October 3 talks with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Moscow.