Vitebsk region has signed an investment agreement with the large Chinese corporation DRex
Six months after the framework cooperation agreement was signed, the regional executive committee and the Chinese joint-stock company have entered into a full-scale investment agreement. The official signing ceremony of the document took place on December 28 in Vitebsk with the participation of the region's leadership and the company's top management.
During this time, mutually acceptable solutions were found for all problematic issues, and the agreements were specified in terms of expanding the project both territorially and in terms of activities. At the same time, the Vitebsk region won the competitive struggle for Chinese investment with other Belarusian regions.
DRex Corporation intends to build several intelligent (with full automation of technological processes) dairy farms, as well as a milk processing enterprise in the Sennensky, Tolochinsky, and additionally Chashniksky districts within four years. At the initial stage, the milking herd will be 20 thousand heads, and it is planned to increase the cattle population to at least 50 thousand animals. A raw material zone of about 100 thousand hectares in three districts will be formed for the project.
The Belarusian side is ready to take on the personnel support of the project, and the Chinese partners have previously agreed to organize the training of local specialists and managerial staff who will join the international DRex team and work at the corporation's facilities in the region.
According to the Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee, Nikolai Sherstnev, the significance of this event for the region cannot be overestimated. For the first time in the Vitebsk region, a Chinese company will implement a project at its own expense through direct investment, being ready to invest its own funds rather than attract borrowed resources. Along with large-scale inflows, advanced technologies will come to the region, which will allow livestock farming to reach leading positions in the country.
The most important aspect of cooperation is the prospect of local enterprises entering the Chinese market. Moreover, the company established by Chinese investors to implement the project is registered in the regional center and will be positioned precisely as a Vitebsk manufacturer.
The Vitebsk negotiation team worked very professionally and effectively, while acting with utmost transparency, emphasized the head of the DRex corporation, Dai Shiwei. These factors, along with favorable natural and climatic conditions for the planned activities, became the main arguments for the investors' decision in favor of the Vitebsk region.
– We expect that cooperation with the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee will develop on the basis of friendship and mutual understanding and will successfully fit into the "One Belt, One Road" concept supported by us, initiated by the leadership of China, – noted Dai Shiwei.
The Regional Executive Committee is ready to provide assistance and support to the investor on projects not only in the agro-industrial complex but also those based on the use of natural resources of the Vitebsk region. At the same time, cooperation with the Chinese side will not be limited to production investments. By agreement with the local authorities, partners from the Celestial Empire are ready to discuss possible areas of interaction in the social sphere, as well as to make efforts to develop tourism.