OREANDA-NEWS. May 13, 2009. In 2008, Austria invested US940 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, reported the Official website government.by.

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.

Austria is interested in promoting Belarusian-Austrian joint projects in such areas as industry, trade, and services, said Reinhard Mang, Secretary General of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management of Austria.

“We are greatly interested in promoting cooperation in industry, trade, and services,” said Reinhard Mang.

“We welcome the rapprochement of nations within the Eastern Partnership initiative and will do our best to support it. Eastern Partnership can make a big contribution to the development of our economies, cooperation and manufacturing cooperation,” he stressed. Reinhard Mang said, before meeting with Vladimir Semashko he had held negotiations with the First Deputy Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister of Belarus. The sides discussed a wide range of cooperation areas that can be of mutual interest. The discussion touched upon projects directly or indirectly connected with the cooperation within the Eastern Partnership. For example, it is trade cooperation, which can be connected with the creation of a free trade zone in the future, he remarked.

Reinhard Mang expressed appreciation for Belarus’ holding Austria Energy Industry Days, which can focus on discussing energy industry projects. In his words, a memorandum of understanding between the Energy Effectiveness Department of the State Standardisation Committee of Belarus and the Austrian Energy Agency should create the foundation for cooperation in this area.

In 2008, Belarus raised US 945.6 million of Austrian investments. In Q1 2009 Austria invested US 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 US 254.4 million. Belarus’ export and import soared by 23.7% to reach US 36.9 million and US 217.5 million respectively. The foreign trade deficit amounted to US 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 US 2 million export growth.

In January-March 2009, the bilateral trade shrank 30.4% compared with the same period in 2008 and amounted to US 34.7 million. The Belarusian export made up US 7.5 million, down 8.9%, the import from Austria amounted to US 27.2 million, down 34.7%. The trade deficit with Austria dropped 1.7 times compared with the same period of 2008 to US 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%).