Page 27 - BELRptJuly18

9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.2 Automotive sector news
China's carmaker Zotye International Automobile Trading has signed a $560mn agreement to set up production of electric cars in Belarus with the Belarusian-British joint venture Unison, according to BELTA news agency.
The deal provides for assembling 30,000 Zotye electric cars in Belarus by 2022 with a high degree of localisation. The cars will then be sold exclusively in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The plant will be the second Chinese large-scale passenger car facility in Belarus. In November, BelGee, a Belarus-China joint venture that assembles Geely cars near Borisov in the Minsk region, launched its new unit with an annual output capacity of up to 60,000 Geely cars.
The new plant will be equipped to assemble CKD (complete knock-down) kits. BelGee currently uses SKD (semi-knock-down) kits.
The company, which was set up in December 2011, currently assembles 10,000 cars per year. In 2016, BelGee increased sales by 12.3% year-on-year to 5,721 vehicles.
9.1.4 Construction & Real estate sector news
Russia's biggest state-owned lender Sberbank is going to finish construction of the frozen multi-mn real estate project in downtown Minsk by the end of 2018, the bank's president and chairman of the board told President Alexander Lukashenko on June 27. "The matter we've discussed and received the presidential approval of is finishing the construction of the large complex of buildings in Minsk's downtown," Gref told journalists after a meeting in Minsk, according to BELTA news agwncy. "We've inherited the buildings because, unfortunately, the original project has not been implemented, the loan has not been repaid. Today we've agreed on the parameters of how we will implement this project within a year." In 2017, Sberbank obtained control over the frozen multi-mn construction of a five-star hotel in central Minsk, initiated by Yury Chizh, powerful Belarusian entrepreneur with close ties to president Lukashenko. The planned construction of a five-star Kempinski hotel in the city centre for an estimated €57mn was agreed in 2009. Despite initial plans to open the hotel in 2013, the project was frozen before completion and its prospects were unclear. The project was carried out by Elite Estate, the hotel division of the Triple conglomerate , a multi-sectoral group of more than 20 companies controlled by Chizh. In July, Sberbank's investment arm Sberbank Capital completed all necessary formalities concerning the acquisition of Elite Estate. The Russian lender should paid off some $50mn in Elite Estate's debt owed to banks. "Today we've agreed that we will repurpose the complex into an office center. Our Belarusian bank - BPS-Sberbank - will move into the central building," Gref added on June 27. "The remaining buildings will be used for the
27 BELARUS Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com