OREANDA-NEWS. June 10, 2011. Belarus and Russia are set to prepare draft documents to establish an auto holding company with the participation of MAZ and KamAZ, First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko told reporters.

The proposal on setting up the auto holding company Rosbelauto was put forward by the Russian Technologies State Corporation, one of the major stockholders of KamAZ.

According to Vladimir Semashko, the establishment of the auto holding company does not entail the sale of shares of the Belarusian company. Some shares of both KamAZ and MAZ and other companies affiliated with them will be transferred to Rosbelauto.

Belarus hopes this will be a viable company that will earn a leading position on the market of the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan and give a boost to Belarusian and Russian producers of heavy-duty vehicles.

“There is a schedule; the project is executed by the Russian Technologies State Corporation and KamAZ (Russia) and the Industry Ministry and MAZ (Belarus). According to the schedule, we are to prepare draft documents by the end of the year. The documents will set forth the operation terms of the holding company taking into consideration the interests of both Belarus and Russia,” Vladimir Semashko said.

Belarus and Russia are planning to sign a loan agreement to build the nuclear power plant in July, First Vice Premier of Belarus Vladimir Semashko told reporters.

“We are scheduled to sign the loan agreement in July. Everything is on schedule. So far everything is all real, there are no objections,” Vladimir Semashko said.

He noted that the parties intend to sign a contractual agreement for the construction of the nuclear power plant in June. The size of the loan is the theme of the talks. It will be reflected in the contractual agreement.

Belarus’ first nuclear power plant will be based on the Russian NPP-2006 project developed by the Saint Petersburg Atomenergoproyekt Institute. The groundwork on the Belarusian nuclear power plant project at the Ostrovets site will begin in September 2011. The Russian engineering company Atomstroyexport is the general contractor. The plant will consist of two power units with the total capacity close to 2,400MW. The first power unit of the Belarusian power plant is supposed to go online in 2017, the second one in 2018. The NPP Construction Directorate will be an organization operating the nuclear power plant organization.

Russian domestic prices for gas supplies to Belarus should be a mandatory condition for selling Beltransgaz shares, First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko told reporters.

Vladimir Semashko noted that the agreement on possible sale of the second half of the Beltransgaz stock to Gazprom is almost ready, but Belarus pushes for a new contract on gas supplies. “The operating contract expires on 31 December this year. Now we are in talks on the draft contract for 2012-2014 and this contract envisages conceptually new approaches. These approaches are based on the package of agreements that we signed on 9 December 2010 while establishing the single economic space,” Vladimir Semashko said.

He reminded that 17 documents were signed, including the one on the establishment of the single gas market. This is one of the major documents stating that Belarus and Russia should switch to equal-income prices by 2015. “This suggests an absolutely new pricing system; we will have different prices and profits. The relevant talks are underway, and if these two issues are settled (on the pricing and selling of Beltransgaz – BelTA’s note), we could immediately sign the two documents – the gas supply contract and the contract on selling Beltransgaz shares,” Vladimir Semashko said.