Belarus and Uzbekistan have registered a joint footwear company
— Nikolai Vasilyevich, when do you plan to launch the enterprise at full capacity?
— Today, we have already selected the range of products we will produce there and determined the equipment we need. According to preliminary data, the enterprise's capacity will be up to 600 thousand pairs per year. By the end of 2019, 350 people will be working there. We held negotiations with the management of the Uzbek Leather and Footwear Association "Uzcharmsanoat" on the issue of training personnel for our enterprise and reached an agreement that some specialists can be trained by educational institutions in Vitebsk and other cities of Belarus. Possibly, starting from the next academic year, among the applicants for our universities, there will be young people from Uzbekistan who wish to obtain the profession of a fashion designer or a footwear production technologist. Students and trainees will complete their practical training at the holding's facilities. This is a mutually beneficial project for both countries.
— What attracts you to the Central Asian market?
— Today, there are all the conditions in this region for its development. Uzbekistan has a population of 32 million people, which is twice as large as in the 1990s. The business climate has also improved. We are attracted by the affordable, high-quality raw materials for production, inexpensive leather goods, and lining materials. For example, instead of pigskin lining (which costs about $9 here), you can get shagreen leather (soft chrome-tanned leather made from goat hides) for $5-6 there. Shagreen leather looks much better, it can be used to make even exclusive footwear, not to mention its use in the production of everyday shoes.
Of course, this will affect the price: we will be able to produce leather shoes at the price of synthetic ones. The cost of products manufactured in Uzbekistan will be half of that at our facilities. This means that without increasing costs, we will be able to achieve a salary of 1000 rubles throughout the holding. In addition, the project will fully employ our specialists.
We understand that transferring our product range to their facilities without changing the business plan is impossible: the low purchasing power of the population of Uzbekistan will not allow it. Therefore, today we are selling our own technologies, although just a couple of decades ago we were buying them from Europe. This is business.
— What other investment projects do you plan to implement in Uzbekistan?
— We plan to acquire a 51 percent stake in one of the enterprises that operated steadily during the Soviet era. Here, too, we will implement our technologies. It is expected that up to 500 people will get jobs. The production capacity will exceed 500,000 pairs of shoes per year. In addition, we plan to create an enterprise for the production of soles, which does not even exist in Belarus. Scientists, technologists, and designers will be involved. In the next 5 years, the Central Asian market will learn about our specialists.
— As a deputy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia, what problems do you see in interstate business cooperation?
— Undoubtedly, the Russian Federation remains our main sales market. The recent Forum of Regions showed that there is great mutual interest and an economic basis for creating cooperations. It is necessary to ensure a legal framework for fruitful cooperation — to unify the legislation of our countries in the field of business and customs regulation. This is what we are working on.