Analysis

Belarus aims for one billion US dollars in defence exports

Roman Golovchenko, the chairman of the Belarusian State Military Industrial Committee (Goskomvoyenprom) has said that the annual value of defence products exported by Belarusian companies will exceed one billion US dollars, Belarusian state news agency Belta has reported.

“So far, the projections have been up to the mark. We expect the export to inch up a bit to total around one billion US dollars by the end of the year. Our export figures do not always coincide with the receipt of foreign exchange earnings due to long settlement periods,” Mr Golovchenko said, adding that the volume of foreign exchange earnings during the first half of the year stood at 60 per cent more than in the corresponding period of 2018.

In January, the Goskomvoyenprom chairman told the Belarusian press that the companies affiliated with the military committee exported 1.027 billion US dollars in 2018. “[The companies] increased their exports of hardware and services from 143.8 million US dollars in 2004 to more than 960 million US dollars in 2017, a sevenfold increase,” he added.