Twenty-two companies were announced winners of the 2019 Best Exporter of the Year contest, Chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladimir Ulakhovich said, BelTA has learned.
“For many years we have held a ceremony to honor the winners and celebrate export milestones at the end of May. We regret that this year we have to resort to a different format, although we are still hoping to hold a friendly meeting with the winners in September,” he said. Vladimir Ulakhovich stressed that for Belarus export is the most important element of economic life, especially given that the country's economic profile is industrial while agriculture is industrial in nature.
The contest is traditionally held across 22 nominations. Winners and runner-ups were named in each of them. This time 163 enterprises advanced to the finals, which was almost 10% more than last year.
According to Vladimir Ulakhovich, on average the final in each nomination featured seven enterprises. But there are nominations that are traditionally more popular. The finals of the small and medium-sized businesses nomination featured 20 companies, Metallurgy nomination - 24 enterprises, and Dairy nomination - 16 manufacturers.
Among the 2019 winners there were some resident companies of FEZ "Minsk": the plant of electronics and household appliances Horizont, Stadler Minsk and the joint company Alumin Techno.
The overall exports of the finalists totaled $8.847 billion, or 21% of the country's total export in 2019. The companies sold their goods to 113 countries.
The contest was organized by the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.