MINSK, May 13 (BelTA) – In 2008, Austria invested $940 million in the Belarusian economy, up 1.6 times, First Vice-Premier of Belarus Vladimir Semashko said in a meeting with an Austrian delegation led by Reinhard Mang, Secretary-General of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, in Minsk on May 13. Belarus and Austria have been steadily developing their relations. The bilateral trade has doubled over the last three years. According to Vladimir Semashko, most successful venue of cooperation is the investment area. There are good examples of cooperation in the manufacturing industry and banking business. One of them is the activity of the Austrian group Raiffeisen in Belarus. The company holds a controlling stake in the Belarusian Priorbank. The investments that the Raiffeisen Group put in Priorbank have paid off two times faster than the company expected. The Austrian company ATEC has also been successful on the Belarusian glass market. According to Vladimir Semashko, the Belarusian industry has been recently, especially today, during the global financial crisis, undergoing qualitatively new changes. Despite the objective difficulties, the pace of capital investment growth has not slowed down in comparison with previous years. Belarus is always ready to discuss possible areas of cooperation with investors. Vladimir Semashko drew the attention to the fact that the business-climate in the country has improved, which is confirmed by WB experts. In 2008, Belarus raised $945.6 million of Austrian investments (3.9 times above the target). In Q1 2009 Austria invested $267 million, which is up 5.9% over the same period last year and which accounted for 95.3% of the annual target. A major part of investment was allocated to Priorbank. The main creditors are Raiffeisen Zentralbank, VTB Bank Austria, Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG. The main recipients are the Naftan and Mozyr oil refineries, Belorusneft Production Association, Gomel glass container works. In 2008 Belarus-Austria trade went up 23.7% to $254.4 million. Belarus’ export and import soared by 23.7% to reach $36.9 million and $217.5 million respectively. The foreign trade deficit amounted to $180.6 million In 2008, Belarus major exports to Austria included products from ferrous metals (carbon steel wire, twisted wire, hardware, cable) - 65.7% of all the exports, wood (crude timber, plywood, furniture) – 13%, chemical products (polymers, plastic ware, rubber) – 9.9%, agricultural products (fruit and vegetables, nuts) – 2.4%, glass fiber – 2.3%.In 2008, Belarusian manufacturers started to export new commodities to Austria, including seamless pipes, aluminum hardware, vacuum pumps, radio and measuring equipment and some other products which resulted in a $2 million export growth. In January-March 2009, the bilateral trade shrank 30.4% compared with the same period in 2008 and amounted to $34.7 million. The Belarusian export made up $7.5 million, down 8.9%, the import from Austria amounted to $27.2 million, down 34.7%. The trade deficit with Austria dropped 1.7 times compared with the same period of 2008 to $19.7 million. Despite some objective difficulties caused by the consequences of the global financial and economic crisis, in Q1 2009, domestic producers managed to start exporting a number of new items, including textile products, plywood, petrochemical products, nonwoven and foundation fabrics. A significant increase in export was contributed by the supplies of reinforcement and reinforcing wire (over 59%), wood and carving wood (over 46%). БЕЛТА
Written by belta.by
