Belarus’ Government, Russia’s Vnesheconombank ink memorandum on cooperation

Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky thinks it necessary to accelerate the transition to the regional currency in the payments between economic entities of Belarus and Russia. He voiced this opinion at the meeting with Chairman of the Russia’s State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank) Vladimir Dmitriev on December 20. “The situation around the US dollar demonstrates that nobody can say what is going to happen in the next weeks, to say nothing of months. This is why what matters most is to preserve markets. In connection with that we proposed to establish regional currency,” Sergei Sidorsky said.

He informed that the relevant proposals have already been submitted to the Russian side, a meeting has been held between the heads of the central banks of the two countries.

“Time has come to make decisions quickly. Why do we need to pay through the American banking system, especially when the products are on our markets?” the Premier underlined.

Vladimir Dmitriev, in turn, said, “We back up the idea of making a transition to the regional currency. The arbitrary behaviour of Americans, including blocking accounts and imposing restrictions on key companies makes us stop using dollar for international payments.”

He underlined that at present, the abovementioned plans are being actively implemented. In particular, contracts are being negotiated on the level of currency exchanges.

Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky has pointed out the growth in non-payments between economic entities of Belarus and Russia.

“Unfortunately, we have arrears of payments today. The Russian Federation has the same. According to the statistics, the arrears of payments reached $2.9 billion. The increase in non-payments between economic entities of Belarus and Russia made up 60%,” Sergei Sidorsky said.

According to him, we can not observe this process passively. The banking systems of both the countries should do their utmost to improve the situation. The Belarusian side hopes for the cooperation with Vnesheconombank to settle this problem.

The Belarusian Government and the Russian Vnesheconombank signed the memorandum on cooperation on December 20. The document has been signed by Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky and Chairman of the state corporation "Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)" Vladimir Dmitriev.

It is the most important agreement concluded with the Russian Vnesheconombank, Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov told reporters. “There are a lot of commercial banks in the world but it is the bank of development, the bank which carries out its credit policy not only on the basis of market principals. First and foremost, this bank allocates funds for the development including the infrastructure construction,” the official highlighted.

The Vice Premier also noted that the same proposals will be prepared with other big banks of Russia.

According to Vladimir Dmitriev, the signed memorandum will allow the two sides to intensify the interbank cooperation, strengthen the cooperation in trade and economic, investment areas. We have to intensify the bilateral economic relations and settle the problems caused by mistrust and decline of production, he stressed.