…At the border of the Moscow and Kaluga regions, there is a stele with the name of the region. It has an ornament of bright red colors – folk embroidery patterns in their style strongly resemble traditional Belarusian script. The commonality of approaches is not only in this, but also in the mutual interest to debug strong bilateral economic ties.
Members of the delegation talked about it in the industrial park “Vorsino”, which became the first place in the program of the working visit of the ambassador. The parties discussed the possibility of using the preferential regimes of the park and the multimodal transport terminal located there in the process of redirecting Belarusian export flows. “A multimodal transport hub is for us the number one problem in terms of building new logistics and quickly reorienting Belarusian export cargo flows to the East using Russian capabilities,” he said. Ambassador of Belarus. Moreover, this park is called here “cargo village”.
It would be very useful to restore direct flights between Minsk and Kaluga, which was also discussed at the meeting.
In 2022, trade turnover between Belarus and the Kaluga region increased by 47%, said Ekaterina Agafonova, head of investor relations at Vorsino Park, a little later. According to her, this is helped by bilateral agreements.
“Today we are working within the framework of six signed cooperation documents, another is being prepared, with the Ministry of Architecture and Construction of the Republic of Belarus,” our counterpart said, adding that science, culture and tourism as areas of cooperation are also a priority.
According to a representative of Vorsino Park, a number of enterprises in the region work with Belarusian capital, and Belarusian clothing, cosmetics and food products have traditionally been in great demand among the population.
- Among the urgent projects that are needed at this time, we have agreed to actively work on the topic of machine tool construction, and not only in terms of supplying machine tools to certain enterprises, but also in terms of their production, – said the Ambassador of Belarus.
The second promising area of ​​​​cooperation is woodworking, believes Dmitry Krutoy.
- There is already a good start in the production of semi-finished products – wooden boards and lumber. There is not enough production of “end” products. Therefore, the task is to localize production for sale not only in the Kaluga region itself, but also in other regions of Russia, ”clarified the head of the Belarusian diplomatic mission.
The delegation of the Kaluga region, headed by the governor, is already preparing for a return visit to Minsk – it is scheduled for April
As for localization, this program is partly carried out at Mercator Holding LLC (one of the innovative leaders on the Russian market of road and municipal equipment). At the production sites, Dmitry Krutoy and we journalists learned how Belarusian MAZs are equipped with attachments for work in the utility sector. Most of the company’s products are produced on the basis of Belarusian MAZ equipment, there are projects based on the BELAZ dump truck chassis.
By the way, MAZs and KAMAZs make up 90% of the fleet of vehicles of this type, Vice President Nikita Sidorov noted during a tour of the plant. According to him, the Russian market for these cars is 2,500 per year, the plant produces 750 cars and is ready to cooperate with Belarus both on deliveries and in other joint projects.
At the Mercator Kaluga plant, the Ambassador of Belarus to the Russian Federation, Dmitry Krutoy, saw the company’s products on Belarusian chassis. Photo: Roman Shcherbenkov
During the working visit, the Ambassador of Belarus was able to see the comfort-class residential complex “Prosto Cosmos” built by Belarusian builders in Obninsk and the mini-polis “Vesnushki” in Kaluga. The second phase of housing in the Belarusian district “Cosmos 2.0” in Obninsk will be put into operation this year. The Belarusian delegation toured the territory of the residential complex and showed an example of a finished apartment. Journalists were very surprised by the “smart” intercom, which allows entry not only with a standard magnetic key, but also with a plastic bank card and even in the face. An interesting solution was found for the design of the landings – each apartment has beautiful and durable standard identical doors, which gives this space a complete and integral look.
In residential areas built by Belarusians, the entire infrastructure is thought out to the smallest detail. Photo: Roman Shcherbenkov
