Belarus expects to attract a loan from the China Development Bank by the end of the year, Finance Minister Maxim Yermolovich told reporters on Friday in Minsk.
“I hope that by the end of this year we will complete all work on the loan (China Development Bank. – IF). We expect that we will get a loan this year,” Yermolovich said.
He clarified that we are talking about the amount of 3.5 billion Chinese yuan (about $ 500 million).
According to the minister, “a series of meetings took place, a large group of colleagues from the China Development Bank came to Minsk to prepare all the necessary documentation for making a final decision on the loan.”
“All the main elements of the loan have been agreed upon, we are awaiting a decision from the Bank of China, for our part, we are preparing documents for conducting internal government procedures,” Yermolovich added.
As reported, the Ministry of Finance of Belarus announced in the summer of its intention to attract a loan from the China Development Bank in connection with the lack of progress in the dialogue on the allocation of the Russian state loan for $ 600 million.
Ermolovich also stated that there was no need “for any political loans” from Russia.
“We do not consider the loan of the government of the Russian Federation as a source of financing and, in fact, we are not negotiating on this loan. We did not submit any requests to the Russian side. We do not expect to receive a Russian loan,” Yermolovich told reporters on Friday in Minsk.
On October 19, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Anton Siluanov announced that there might not be a state loan of $ 600 million, which Russia and Belarus have been discussing for a long time. “It has not been decided yet. It (the decision on this loan – IF ) may not be,” he told reporters in Washington.
The Minister noted that the prospects for this loan are not linked to the discussion of integration plans for the economies of the two countries.
Minsk previously asked for the allocation of another Russian state credit for the refinancing of the obligations to the Russian external debt in 2020. In April 2019, the Russian government agreed to provide Belarus with a state loan of $ 600 million to refinance previous loans.
Ermolovich said in June that Moscow was linking $ 600 million to a state loan to Minsk from integration processes.
The Ministry of Finance of Belarus announced in the summer of its intention to attract a loan from the China Development Bank as an alternative to the Russian state loan due to the lack of progress in the dialogue on the allocation of $ 600 million.