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The Joint Belarusian-Russian Business Council was created on June 30, 2021. The establishment documents were signed by the heads of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation within the framework of the annual Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia. The Business Council is a new interaction format between the chambers of commerce and industry and businesses of both countries, a coordinating and consulting body aimed to increase the efficiency of business relations between entrepreneurs and business unions of Belarus and Russia.
The Council major tasks are the expansion of direct contacts between entrepreneurs, overcoming the barriers and restrictions in mutual trade, the full-scale dialogue with legislative and executive bodies on cooperation matters, the development of recommendations for business environment improvement. The Council members are heads of leading enterprises from various fields of activity.
Since the creation of the Joint Belarusian-Russian Business Council, its participants from the Belarusian and Russian sides have been discussing the most pressing issues of bilateral business cooperation, the ways to overcome the barriers that arise in the process of business interaction, have been working out the possibilities of cooperation and the consolidation of efforts to find solutions to external problems.
A joint meeting of the Business Council – with the participation of Belarusian and Russian entrepreneurs – was held on June 30 in Grodno. By tradition, it coincided with the Forum of Regions of Belarus and Russia, held for the ninth time this year.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on Economy, Budget and Finance, Chairman of Novopolotsk City Executive Committee Dmitry Demidov, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Ivan Abramov, First Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of Belarus Yuri Chebotar, Chairman of the BelCCI Mikhael Miatlikov, President of the Chamber of Commerce of the Russian Federation Sergey Katyrin, Co-Chairs of the Business Council – Deputy Chairman of Minsk City Executive Committee Nadezhda Lazarevich (on the Belarusian side), Chairman of the Board of Vozdukhotechnica JSC Alexander Yastrib (on the Russian side), heads of all regional unitary enterprises of the BelCCI and 14 Russian regional chambers of commerce and industry, and more than 120 representatives of both countries' business circles.
Opening the meeting, the Chairman of the BelCCI Mikhael Miatlikov stressed that the meeting of the Business Council has become even more important given the conditions in which Belarusian and Russian businesses have to work today. The event aroused considerable interest from the Belarusian and Russian business circles.
The BelCCI Chairman noted that 2022 has become the year of challenges and opportunities for both Belarus and Russia. Despite the difficulties, the cooperation between the two countries has been developing, including due to prompt discussion and resolution of problematic issues at the site of the Joint Belarusian-Russian Business Council.
"The issues to be discussed on the sidelines of today's Council meeting will primarily involve the entrepreneurship support in new realities. I am sure that the meeting will be successful, the agreements concluded will open up new horizons for our countries' businesses, the Business Council itself will remain a reliable platform for the Belarusian-Russian business dialogue," Mikhael Miatlikov said.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Sergey Katyrin noted that under the current conditions, Russian entrepreneurs are focused at the closest neighbors – Belarus: "Now we see that over the past year and a half much more could have been done in terms of integration, building new economic chains. Naturally, we need to work more actively in this regard. Today's meeting is aimed primarily at ensuring that we work on industrial cooperation, entrepreneurship support for the benefit of both sides."
Welcoming the participants, Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on Economy, Budget and Finance Dmitry Demidov and Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Ivan Abramov noted that meetings and dialogue between the business circles of the two countries have become a tradition, and this tradition is especially important now. The conditions of new challenges, external economic pressure are forcing both government agencies and the business community to reassess the existing opportunities and prospects, develop import substitution plans, and form new supply chains. Taking into account the new realities for the economies of Russia and Belarus, support for entrepreneurship is more relevant and in demand than ever.
The participants discussed topical issues of Belarusian-Russian cooperation, including import substitution and domestic market protection, industrial potential integration, support mechanisms for entrepreneurship with new challenges in mind, digital technologies for business, opportunities to protect the interests of suppliers and buyers through the procedure of international commercial arbitration.
In addition, representatives of Belarusian and Russian businesses signed 12 bilateral documents that are supposed to launch new integration projects. They include the updated version of the cooperation agreement between the BelCCI and the CCI of Russia, a number of agreements between regional chambers of commerce and industry of both countries, a cooperation agreement between the Association of Evaluation Organizations and the Foundation for the Development of Professional Qualifications of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, and others.
After the plenary part of the Joint Business Council meeting, representatives of the business circles of Belarus and Russia continued working in B2B format. They discussed the possibilities of mutually beneficial cooperation in mechanical engineering, instrumentation, construction and housing, agriculture, food, light, chemical industry, logistics, services, and others.
New agreements, direct business contacts, elaboration of joint projects and solutions to existing problematic issues – such results of the Joint Belarusian-Russian Business Council meeting indicate that this business dialogue platform is relevant, demanded and effective. The Belarusian and Russian sides have something to offer each other for joint projects in various fields, including aimed at replacing sanctioned imports and successfully overcoming all existing barriers and challenges.