Up the export arc
The President of Belarus requires bringing Belarusian products to the markets of the far arc seriously and permanently. The Head of State declared this yesterday at a meeting on the Belarusian industry development. The Belarusian leader drew attention to the fact that trade and economic ties with Latin American countries have also been resumed. Recently, the Government delegation of our country visited Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. What is Belarus' interest in these countries, and what can we offer?
Window of Opportunities
According to economists, in 2023-2024, the Latin American economy started forming new upward trends, the most promising of which is the e-commerce sector. This year, online shopping growth can reach $282 billion. And by 2025, the volume of trade on b2b platforms will increase to $2.1 trillion. In general, according to UN forecasts, the region's GDP will grow in 2024 by an average of 2.1 percent, with South America by 1.6 percent, Central America and Mexico by 2.7 percent, and the Caribbean by 2.8 percent.
This unique region consists of a wide range of subregions, each with its own specifics, geographical and cultural characteristics. According to experts, the common key problems of its member states are safety, health and the environment. To ensure the solution of urgent development tasks, many countries in their domestic policy strive to build a welfare society of the XXI century. And in the international arena, taking into account the weakening of the US hegemony in Latin America, they are building relations with promising and friendly international partners.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said at the plenary session of the II Eurasian Economic Forum on May 24, 2023, that along with the countries of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Latin American states no longer want to be commodity printers, sources of cheap labor. The Head of State noted that they want, and quite deservedly, to fully participate in the international division of labor. And they achieve decent pay for their work.
Therefore, for Belarus, the Latin American continent can be considered as a window of opportunity and one of the important export destinations, largely due to the growing needs of its member states in agricultural and other machinery, fertilizers, new technologies, and other goods and services. Due to its diversity and rich resource potential, the region is an important platform for the integration of our country into global trade and economic relations.
Distance is no barrier
Experts note that due to strong contacts with the business community and the market of a number of Latin American countries, the Belarusian side has good opportunities in this area. Belarus' current and prospective partners are represented in key locations in Central and South America, long-term ties with which reflect mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries.
One of the leading economic centers in the Latin American region is Brazil, the deepening of diverse cooperation with which meets our strategic interests. Long-standing reliable friends of Belarus in the region, both bilaterally and multilaterally, are Cuba and Venezuela. Constructive cooperation is maintained with Ecuador and Nicaragua. Belarus is interested in deepening cooperation with dynamically developing Colombia, which has a capacious market and can become a platform for promoting Belarusian interests in the fast-growing Pacific alliance. And today it is 260 million consumers.
Statistics also speak about the level of our relations. In 2023, Belarus' trade turnover with Brazil and Cuba more than doubled, and an agreement was reached to increase trade relations with Venezuela and Nicaragua. In Nicaragua, for the first time in Central America, the Belarusian side signed major contracts and banking agreements worth $85 million.
Traditional interests of Belarus in the region are agriculture and mechanical engineering. At the same time, at the III Belarusian-Latin American Forum held in April 2024, pharmaceuticals, biotechnologies, and logistics were identified as promising areas of cooperation and were discussed in the course of the July visit of Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko to the countries of the region. In Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba, the parties agreed on cooperation in the fields of customs, food and equipment supplies, industrial cooperation, vaccine and drug development, tourism, science and education. Therefore, it is safe to say that Belarus' cooperation with Latin America is developing dynamically, based on mutual understanding and trust, and has a strategic character for our state.
A non-trivial approach
Despite the good prospects for cooperation with Latin American countries, experts draw attention to certain difficulties that Belarusian businesses and enterprises need to take into account.
Entering these markets is a rather complicated task, requiring non-standard approaches and more flexible formats of cooperation. In building economic cooperation in the markets of the region, it is necessary to take into account the presence of serious competition from the country's main trading partners, such as China, the United States, the EU, adjacent Latin American countries, Asian states, and the Middle East. In addition, the United States continues to have a serious influence on the formation of the regional architecture of the continent, starting from interference in the affairs of the countries of the region to provoking conflicts or disagreements between countries in regional initiatives.
At the same time, the Belarusian presence on the Latin American continent is not only a matter of economy and trade. Our interests in Latin America are shaped to a significant extent by a common vision of global development and values, primarily in the issue of creating a just world order.
Cooperation in the BRICS format is an extremely promising area, since the association includes the world's largest geopolitical players. In the formation of a new multipolar world, one should not be left out but be more involved in this process. In this regard, Minsk's partners in the region share our understanding of the need to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and enhance multipolarity, including at the BRICS+ and SCO platforms, which can ensure the democratization of international relations and guarantees of development for all countries.