In the framework of the official visit of President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Belarus, a bilateral Belarusian-Turkish business forum was held at the National Exhibition Center. In such a format and on such a large scale the forum was held for the first time. About 200 business leaders arrived in the delegation of Erdogan. And 300 Belarusian companies expressed a desire to maintain here the partnership dialogue. There were heads of major companies, representatives of small and medium businesses. All those who are directly involved in bilateral co-operation projects. In fact, those who keep abreast of the economic integration in the Eurasian space as a whole.
The dynamics of trade turnover between the two countries is from 50 to 600 million US dollars. Only in the last 8 years, it has grown five-fold. And the parties are willing to increase it up to a billion. The results for the first half of 2016 in Minsk and Ankara have developed successfully. Trade has grown. In numbers, it is more than 12%.
Turkey is in the top ten most important trade partners of Belarus. However, we still buy more than sell, seasonal agricultural products and knitwear in particular, also transport services, tourism and construction. Last year, trade in services subsided. This problem is to be solved including by this forum.
The Turkish capital has a positive investment experience in our country. It was one of the topics of conversation — on the basis of mutual benefit to develop investment cooperation. Within the forum, the director of NAIP Natalia Nikandrova presented to the Turkish business community the investment potential of Belarus and told about successful work of the Turkish business on the territory of Belarus.Last year, the volume of investments in the Belarusian economy was increased four-fold — 50 million US dollars were used in significant projects. Basically it is the same building objects.
Long-standing relationships with the regions of Belarus are only one example. The Turkish business came in Mogilev region in 2002. Thus, company Karbelteks appeared for the production of home textiles. Now the company has been working on the production of children's clothing. But the biggest business project with the participation of the Turkish capital has become a factory for the production of goods for children. In 2011, there was a project, in 2012 there was the launch of production. The second line started its operation in 2015. Volumes increased 1.5 times. Today it is 6 million units per month.
“We decided in late 2015 to open our own production in Belarus. We signed the project at the Belarusian Investment Forum, which was held in Istanbul. Since May, we have officially started to produce wet wipes, now we sell them not only in Belarus, but in Russia Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and other countries. The capacity of our line of wet wipes is 20 million packages per year. With this production we have created additional 8 jobs. It is convenient to work now in Belarus, there are good conditions, good benefits,” Deputy Director of BelEmsa Osman Uçar told.
Attractive conditions for business development, tax breaks — all these attract Turkish companies. The sense of inviolability of fundamental principals of rights, guaranteed protection of property, the clarity and unambiguous market rules are important for the investor. That is how Belarus is ready to work with its partners.
The President of Belarus reminded of our important trump card — free access to the markets of the Eurasian Economic Union, the ambitious projects with China and, of course, the main thing is that between Minsk and Ankara there are no problematic issues.
Of course, the presence of the Belarusian side in Turkey is relatively modest. The main source of income is potash. However, Belneftekhim has the distribution network. MAZ is ready to open an office, Gomselmash has started deliveries and together with BelAZ is preparing to open assembly plants.
An exhibition took place within the frame of the forum, which included about 150 Belarusian innovative projects, space projects in particular. “All of this is a hint to our Turkish partners about the areas in which we can work,” said Ulakhovich.
According to information resources