A continent in search of opportunities

In September 2023, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus held a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus on the development of cooperation with the countries of Africa, where the Belarusian government outlined the main directions in this continent: medicine, education, ensuring food security of African countries, supply of agricultural machinery, industrial cooperation. Assessing the objective foreign trade situation, Belarusian Prime Minister R. Golovchenko emphasized that Africa has a huge potential for development, but the accumulated political capital of Belarus has not yet been converted into successful trade and economic projects. In 2022, exports of Belarusian goods to Africa amounted to just over ＄200 million and are showing a slight downward trend. For this reason, the government of Belarus has set a clear task - it is necessary to make every effort to find the right tools to reverse the negative dynamics in cooperation with African countries, to form roadmaps, to look for specific projects that can be implemented. What steps are being taken in Belarus in this direction? This is the subject of this proposed study.