The main trading partners of Karelia in 2023 are China, Belarus, India and Türkiye
The national project “Small and Medium Enterprises and Support for Individual Entrepreneurial Initiatives” helps entrepreneurs enter foreign markets, strengthen contacts with foreign partners from friendly countries, and find new growth directions.
The Minister of Economic Development of Karelia Oleg Ermolaev spoke about the results of foreign economic activity over the past year and the plans for 2024 at the conference “The Way to the World Market: Experience of Successful Companies”.
- The development of new markets and building partnerships with friendly countries is under the special control of the Government of the Russian Federation. Therefore, our priority task was to reorient the export supplies of the Karelian producers to new markets. To achieve it, we intensified efforts to expand trade and economic cooperation with the countries friendly to Russia in 2023. The main trading partners of our republic are such states as China, Belarus, India and Türkiye. Together, these countries occupy more than 70% of the total external trade turnover of Karelia with foreign countries. In general, trade operations were carried out with the partners from more than 83 countries in 2023, - said Oleg Ermolaev.
The People's Republic of China is a traditional trade and economic partner of Karelia; the volume of the foreign trade turnover with this country in 2023 has increased compared to 2022. Over the past year, China's share in Karelia's foreign trade volume increased by 29% and amounted to over 47%. It is more than $240 million.
The Republic of Turkey became an important trading partner in 2023. At the end of 2023, Türkiye’s share in the volume of Karelia’s foreign trade was 5.5%, which is over $38 million.
Oleg Ermolaev noted that the closest Karelian trading partner is the Republic of Belarus. The volume of foreign trade turnover with this country is quite large. In recent years, the share of the Republic of Belarus in the volume of foreign trade of Karelia has exceeded 9.8%. At the end of 2023, the volume of foreign trade between Karelia and the Republic of Belarus amounted to more than $69 million (an increase by 4.6% compared to 2022).
The Ministry of Economic Development of Karelia will continue to work to expand sales markets for the Karelian products to maintain the stable operation of enterprises and create conditions for their development. For this purpose, the capabilities of diplomatic and trade missions of the Russian Federation abroad, as well as the representative offices of the AO “Russian Export Center” will be used.
At the conference, the head of the Representative Office of the AO “REC” in St. Petersburg, Andrey Mironov, spoke about the measures to support entrepreneurs at the federal level. Today, there is an extensive list of financial and non-financial support mechanisms for participants in foreign economic activity. These include recovery of expenses for products transportation, insurance against the risk of non-receipt of funds from counterparties, a VAT refund guarantee, and import financing.
- In 2023, the Karelian companies received more than 2 billion rubles of financial support from the federal budget. In the near future, all support mechanisms will be available through the “My Export” digital platform. All exporters need to register in this system, noted Andrey Mironov.
The event aroused great interest among the representatives of small and medium-sized businesses in Karelia. The experts in the field of foreign trade, logistics, and banking met at the conference site. The expert sessions “Inbound tourism in modern conditions”, “Export of food products”, “Prospects for development of timber products exports” were held for the business representatives.
