OREANDA-NEWS. May 18, 2010. By the end of the year Belarus and Tatarstan plan to return to pre-crisis trade levels, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky told after meeting with Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov during the working visit to the Republic of Tatarstan, reported the Official website government.by.

“We have undertaken to reach the pre-crisis level of trade with Tatarstan by the end of the year. It is feasible. The projects that we have agreed on today will boost our trade turnover,” stressed the Prime Minister of Belarus.

He reminded that before the crisis Belarus-Tatarstan trade stood at RUB34 billion. “Due to objective reasons the trade dropped a little in the crisis year. But in that crisis time together with Tatarstan’s leadership we sketched out the steps to smooth all the negative consequences,” said Sergei Sidorsky.

As a result, all the Belarusian-Russian companies that operate in Tatarstan successfully lived through the financial crisis and did not reduce their output. In January-March 2010 Belarus-Tatarstan trade increased by more than 35% in comparison with the same period of last year.

"Projects that we have identified (for cooperation), would significantly increase turnover", – stressed the head of the Belarusian Government.

In particular, Sergei Sidorsky said that in the near future we plan to combine scientific and technical development in Tatarstan with a "breakthrough projects in Belarus".

“In the near future the most significant research and development projects of Tatarstan and the most important breakthrough projects in the Belarusian economy will be united. Belarus will soon share its technologies with the Khimgrad Technopolis and the IT-Park of Kazan,” Sergei Sidorsky said.

In particular, the Belarusian side is planning to construct a trade and logistics center in the Khimgrad Technopolis.

Recall, during a working visit to the Republic of Tatarstan the Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky made a tour of several high-technology companies of Kazan: IT-Park, the Idea Technopark and the Khimgrad Technopolis. Visiting the technological cluster, Sergei Sidorsky got familiar with the electronic system used for government and corporate purchases. The Prime Minister gave an instruction to Belarusian companies to think about the possibility of taking part in the system. The Republic of Tatarstan is one of Russia’s ten most advanced regions in the area of information and communication technologies. This is why Belarus is interested in Tatarstan’s experience of forming a regional electronic government.

During a meeting with President of Tatarstan Sergei Sidorsky pointed out that Belarus offers a number of Russian enterprises of new schemes of work. These issues are now also discussed with the leadership of Tatarstan. It is about the development of leasing operations, the acquisition of Belarusian goods through concessional lending program with Sberbank of Russia.

In turn, Rustam Minnikhanov said that "when there is cooperation and integration in the economy other communications could be realized. Referring to Sergei Sidorsky, he also said: "I think, during your visit, we will be able to agree on many things. This is a very timely visit."

Also, after meeting the Prime Minister of Belarus with President of Tatarstan, it was decided to expand bilateral cooperation in the petrochemical area.

“We are ready to extend the list of negotiation points in the petrochemical industry and have several proposals for implementing projects both in Tatarstan and Belarus,” remarked Sergei Sidorsky.

In particular, it is planned that the company "Tatneft" opens in Belarus, 38 stations, but in the long term will increase the number of stations to 100. “Two years ago we agreed that the refueling network in Belarus will include our colleagues from Tatarstan. At present they are already working at 38 locations. In all, we plan to increase the number up to 100,” said Sergei Sidorsky.

According to Rustam Minnikhanov, Tatarstan has a strategic interest in promoting car refueling stations in Belarus.

The Prime Minister of Belarus also mentioned prospects of future negotiations on cooperation with Belarusian oil refineries. “The Belarusian side receives relevant proposals and we look into them,” he added. At present Belarusian oil refineries process about 1.5 million tonnes of oil from Tatarstan every year.

Just like Tatarstan Belarus has a powerful petrochemical industry. Enterprises of Belarus and Tatarstan have had partnership ties for a long time. In 2009 Belarusian oil refineries received 1.45 million tonnes of oil from Tatneft resources, in January-March 2010 – 237,000 tonnes of oil. The Belarusian company LLK-Naftan has signed a contract with Nizhnekamskneftekhim for the delivery of 160 tonnes of propylene trimmers to Belarus.

In line with contracts and agreements in 2009 Nizhnekamskneftekhim received \\\\$6.6 million worth of butylene-butadiene fraction and ethane nitrile made by Naftan. Enterprises of Belneftekhim concern are interested in expanding the volume of imports from Tatarstan and optimizing the delivery schemes.

Also, after meeting the Prime Minister of Belarus with President of Tatarstan an agreement on expansion of the range supplied RT tractors has concluded.

“Apart from the MTZ-1222 models, we will deliver the MTZ-3022 tractors with all the necessary technical documents. It is a new model,” said Belarus’ Prime Minister.

Rustam Minnikhanov confirmed this agreement. “Today we want to expand the assortment of Belarusian tractors delivered to Tatarstan. We need more powerful tractors, although the previous models proved themselves to be good machinery,” said the Tatarstan President.

“Today we have agreed on the further cooperation, the expansion of the tractor assortment and the financial schemes that will facilitate the promotion of Belarusian tractors on the Tatarstan market,” Rustam Minnikhanov said.

“We are also interested in other Belarusian agricultural machinery such as fodder and grain harvesters,” added the Tatarstan President.

Also, after a meeting Sergei Sidorsky and Rustam Minnikhanov signed a protocol of agreements.

On the second day of working visit to the Republic of Tatarstan, 15 May, Prime Minister of Belarus took part in the opening line of assembling tractors Belarus-3022 "in Yelabuga.

The first MTX-82.1 assembly line was opened in Tatarstan in 2002. As of early April 2010, the facility has assembled more than 14,500 tractors including 13,200 MTZ-82.1 tractors, 1,200 MTZ-1221 and over 100 MTZ-80 tractors.

The initial plans were to produce around 200 Belaurs-3022 tractors in 2010. The output of tractors of other modifications was projected at 1,500 units. Yet, following the talks with the President of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, a decision was taken to increase the output to 5,000 units. Now the sides are working on the ways of reaching this target.

“We are satisfied with the way the facilities operate here. We have agreed that in the next two or three years the output will be boosted to 10,000 units,” Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said at a ceremony of opening the tractor assembly line at the MTZ-ElAZ trading house. Sergei Sidorsky noted that a beautiful facility has been created in a very short period of time. The company will be also working for the Belarusian economy as it will expand the opportunities for promoting Belarusian products.

According to Sergei Sidorsky, Belarus exports over 60,000 tractors to almost 160 countries every year. Therefore the country needs to explore new technologies, employ a strategy of innovative economic development. The task is to create new companies in Belarus and transfer technologies.

According to Sergei Sidorsky, a MT33022 tractor is one of the advanced models which is used in more than 100 countries. As for the capacity, this model can substitute three to four tractors. The Belarusian Premier stressed that the use of this equipment in Tatarstan would give an opportunity to local agricultural companies to improve the quality of fields, reduce the consumption of resources and enhance profitability.

In his words, tractors assembled in Yelabuga have the Russian certificate of origin. “We have been closely cooperating with the Russian companies. In fact, Belarus will be sharing its innovation product with its partners,” he said.

Sergei Sidorsky also visited the Sollers-Yelabuga auto-making plant in the town of Yelabuga, a large-scale unit of the Russian automaker Sollers, produces Fiat Ducato at the Alabuga special economic zone. The company offers a full range of auto services. The company makes 120,000 Fiat Ducato cars and Isuzu trucks per year.

Prime Minister of Belarus visited the JSC "KAMAZ", where he studied the models KamAZ and modern science and technology development expertise of the business. In addition, the head of the Belarusian government visited Kama Industrial Park Master – Technopark, centered on the mechanical engineering industry.