2023-06-28 15:29:43
Illustrative photo
Alexander Lukashenko, in his welcoming speech to the participants of the 10th Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia, which is taking place in Ufa, declared Belarus’ readiness to participate in the modernization of key sectors of the Russian economy.
“We have a lot of interesting and demanded by the regions of Russia proposals in the field of agriculture, construction, mechanical engineering, woodworking, equipment supplies, the formation of a component base, food and light industry, space exploration, and pharmaceuticals,” he said.
Does Belarus have the opportunity to help modernize the Russian economy and how important will this help be? “Solidarity” asked the economists.
Lev Lvovsky believes that with such a statement, Lukashenka decided once again to “troll Putin.”
“It’s like he saved Russia from Wagner, and now we’ll also set up the production of microelectronics for them,” said Lvovsky.
But economist Lev Margolin believes that Lukashenko said this quite seriously.
— In the Russian economy, in connection with the sanctions and the departure of many Western investors, a peculiar situation has developed. If earlier many Belarusian industries, which were largely more progressive than Russian ones, faced competition from Western, South Korean, Japanese firms and often lost in this competition, now there is practically the only competitor on the Russian market – China, – explains the expert in the express commentary “Solidarity”.
Of course, this is a fairly powerful competitor, given its capabilities, huge domestic markets and the fact that it is not under sanctions and can develop more dynamically. But at the same time, along with the Chinese, there are, let’s call them conditionally, white spots where Belarusian enterprises can enter.
Moreover, this is often associated with import substitution, the reorientation of the Russian economy on a war footing, and this, in turn, is associated with state funding from the Russian Federation.
Where there is state funding, we are not talking about cost-effectiveness, expediency in terms of competitive opportunities, etc. That is, if something is needed for the Russian army, it doesn’t matter if it is food, medicine, some components for Russian enterprises, there is no time to look at something cheaper or better, you have to take what you have.
And this, of course, opens up additional opportunities for the Belarusian economy both within our country, since many Belarusian enterprises received a breath of air when Russian military orders almost fell from the sky, and within Russia itself.
At the same time, Margolin notes that the Russian economy is largely private, especially with regard to processing enterprises.
“They, as a rule, are not ready to take what they give at any price. The only exception is when it comes to state funding, where, as they say, whoever pays orders the music. Therefore, you can not buy, but you can bargain.
It is difficult to judge how important assistance to Belarus can be for Russia, the expert believes. Including because there is no relevant information. However, speaking abstractly, we can assume that sometimes there are bottlenecks in the economy, especially in the processing industries.
— There is, say, a ball bearing plant or a gear plant in Belarus, but in Russia this position is lacking. And how is this to be assessed? Maybe they are talking about penny items, but without them, production stops,” concludes Lev Margolin.
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