Yaroshenko: Budget spending on China-Belarus Industrial Park Great Stone paid off

The budget spending on the China-Belarus Industrial Park Great Stone has already paid off, Head of the Great Stone Park Administration Aleksandr Yaroshenko told the STV channel, BelTA informs.

“If we talk about total spending, it has not paid off, because more than $800 million was invested in this project. This is a lot of money. Yet, as far as the budget of the Republic of Belarus is concerned, we have already paid back our costs; we spent more than $37.5 million. And by now we have returned about $60 million to the budget, despite the fact that we have serious preferences,” Aleksandr Yaroshenko said.

He noted that the ratio of infrastructure spending is 1 to 8. This means that every Br1 allocated from the budget was coupled with Br8 spent by other participants of the project. The world average is 1 to 2.

Speaking about export logistics, Aleksandr Yaroshenko noted that the industrial park was not spared by external shocks. “I won't say that nothing has changed for the park. Of course, things have changed. Yet, our resident companies that manufacture products sell them in 20 countries. This is a fairly good geography. We expect that the export of our resident companies in 2022 will be over $100 million. In fact, we are still at the beginning of our journey. Our projects are just gaining steam,” he stressed.

Aleksandr Yaroshenko noted that the bulk of exports goes to Eurasia, however, the park also exports to other countries of the world, including the United States.

The head of the industrial park administration also noted that about 80% of the equipment produced in the Great Stone park is top-notch and belongs to the fifth technological paradigm. The process is robotized, new methods are used. “This is the technology of the future, which is also used at Belarusian enterprises. But we would like to be the driving force of this process, so that all enterprises of the Republic of Belarus follow suit,” he added.