The first place for Belarusians in the Volga region. An example of harmonious complementarity of the economies of Belarus and Tatarstan

The Republic of Tatarstan has traditionally been one of the top ten regions of Russia in terms of trade volume with Belarus, and ranks first in the Volga Federal District in this indicator. Cooperation in dozens of fields, such as machinery, petrochemicals, agriculture, aircraft manufacturing, science and education, tourism, culture, etc., has been fruitful and is showing a positive development trend. Of course, this is not only proven by statistics, bilateral relations are characterized by continuous interaction at the highest level, regular contacts between government agencies, chambers of commerce, higher education institutions and the business community. After years of joint efforts, Belarus and Tatarstan have learned to complement each other harmoniously in the economy. A prominent example is petrochemistry. Thus, Tatarstan is one of the main suppliers of petrochemical raw materials to Belarus, and Belarus is one of the exporters of petrochemical products to Russian regions. In what other areas are economic relations between Belarus and Tatarstan developing? Yevgeniy Rusak, deputy director of the State Center for Marketing and Prices, told a reporter from the Belarusian News Agency.

On a parity basis

Although the areas of cooperation between Belarus and Tatarstan are extremely wide, the cornerstone is the economic level. In the near future, the parties plan to more than triple the trade volume to the point where about half of the trade volume is petrochemical products. But it is not only this industry that shows promise. As experts clarify, the structure of Belarusian exports to Tatarstan has traditionally been dominated by tractors and truck tractors, tires for cars and tractors, spare parts and accessories, stranded ferrous metal wire without electrical insulation, non-alloy wire. Steel, air and vacuum pumps, compressors and fans, and the people of the Russian republic love our cheese and cottage cheese.

There are examples of the creation of joint ventures. Back in 2003, MTZ-Tatarstan Trade and Production LLC appeared, which today has a well-developed dealer network throughout Russia. The company is a sales center for various products of domestic engineering manufacturers, including Bobruisk Tractor Parts and Assembly Plant, Vitebsk Tractor Spare Parts Plant, Minsk Automobile Plant, Borisov Assembly Plant, Radiovolna OJSC and many other enterprises.

Belarus not only sells products to Tatarstan, we also buy a lot of products from the Russian republic. In addition to crude oil and condensate, Tatarstan supplies Belarus with electric motors and generators, propylene polymers and styrene polymers.

“Today both sides stressed the need to expand the scope of mutual supply, develop cooperation and establish joint ventures,” stressed the deputy director of the National Marketing Center.

By analyzing the current information agenda of Belarus-Tatarstan relations, it is not difficult to draw similar conclusions. Rusak recalled that in February this year, the President of Belarus visited Tatarstan. During the visit, the two sides reached an agreement on the implementation of new joint projects and discussed the methods of working under sanctions. The ninth meeting of the working group on cooperation between Belarus and Tatarstan focused on the prospects for interaction in the fields of mechanical engineering, petrochemicals, agriculture, aircraft construction, science, education, tourism, culture, youth policy and sports. It was held in Minsk in April 2023. During the meeting, the two sides signed a number of cooperation agreements in the fields of aircraft construction, agriculture and food. Representatives of the parties also signed the roadmap for cooperation of the Ministry of Culture. The Agreement on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation signed by the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan in 2004 remains in force.

Everything with the prefix “smart” for progressive planning

Belarus and Tatarstan have a future-oriented vision for bilateral cooperation, so it is extremely important to explore areas of growth that are beneficial to both sides. Let’s start with the Russian regions. The Tatarstan Republic’s socio-economic development strategy until 2030 identifies petrochemicals, infrastructure, agro-industrial and energy complexes, as well as mechanical engineering and other manufacturing and service industries as priority investment sectors of the economy.

Experts explained: “The strategy divides the economy into three types of clusters: key clusters, innovative clusters and modern economic clusters. Key clusters are petrochemical and energy clusters, science and education clusters, and innovative clusters include biosystems clusters, sustainable energy clusters, smart machines, equipment, materials, infrastructure, medicine, smart education, smart IT, etc. Modern economic clusters include shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, automobile industry, agro-industrial complex, woodworking and furniture production, light industry, construction and new industries. Building materials. “

Public data show that by the end of 2023, the GDP of the Tatarstan region exceeded 4 trillion Russian rubles, an increase of 3.6% over the previous year. The increase in the output of the engineering sector made an important contribution to the dynamics of industrial production in the region. The construction industry in Tatarstan continued to develop due to the implementation of large-scale road construction projects and the commissioning of a large number of houses. The republic also actively improved electrical and radio instruments.

Why are Russian regions interested in Belarus in this regard? Analyzing the strategy for the socio-economic development of the Republic of Tatarstan until 2030, the list of priority investment projects in the region until 2024, and the list of products required to ensure import substitution in the republic, and taking into account the developed sectors of the Belarusian economy, the deputy director of the National Marketing Center suggested considering these potentially promising areas of Belarusian-Tatarstan cooperation.

“I am focusing first on smart devices, gas, energy and power equipment, food equipment, modern technologies in the field of waste treatment, machine tool construction, robotics, 3D printing – the list is very extensive, Evgeniy Rusak stressed. Next we should think about deepening cooperation in aircraft construction, car manufacturing and shipbuilding, and of course, we cannot do without agro-industrial complexes. Agricultural machinery, the introduction of bio- and nanotechnologies in agriculture, the construction of livestock and fish farming complexes and dairy farms, the need to automate technological processes in the processing and storage of agricultural products, and the need to introduce technologies for the explosion and freezing of vegetables and berries.”

An impressive array of promising areas of cooperation all have the characteristic of “smart”. For example, infrastructure – experts pointed out the possibility of profiting from the development, production and implementation of solutions in the field of space and infrastructure development – or energy. Here we have already discussed new technologies in the field of large-scale energy, as well as smart accounting and billing systems. There are great prospects for cooperation in the field of information technology in the areas of artificial intelligence technologies, cloud services, development of information security systems, etc.

“One of the priorities of the petrochemical industry could be the supply of Belarusian food products, which are also needed in Tatarstan: sugar, starch, malt, yeast, cheese, ice cream, alcohol and alcoholic beverages. Russian regions could be interested in them,” Evgeniy Rusak said, adding, “the quality of fabrics made of Belarusian synthetic fibers and man-made filament yarns. Non-woven materials, as well as highly processed wood products (for example, cellulose), can also be evaluated in Tatarstan.”

Experts believe that there are prospects in both the healthcare and education sectors. Tatarstan may be interested in Belarus’ experience in introducing bio- and nanotechnologies into medicine: the focus should be on biopharmaceuticals, auxiliary medicines, vaccines, diagnostic systems, bioadditives, bioenergy. Educational cooperation affects the training of specialists in the fields of information technology and medicine. In general, as the representatives of the National Marketing Center assured, the scope of trade, economic, production, cooperation and scientific and technological relations between Belarus and Tatarstan will obviously expand -0-.