Key areas for developing strategic cooperation between Belarus and China in trade and industry were the main topics on the agenda of the business forum held in Shanghai by the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) and a major Chinese manufacturer of packaging materials and equipment accredited on BUCE in December 2025. The event brought together over 30 representatives of the Chinese business community. Alexander Shevchenko, Consul General of Belarus in Shanghai, also attended the forum.

Given that 2026 and 2027 had been declared the Years of Industrial Cooperation between Belarus and China, the forum focused on finding ways to enhance collaboration between the two countries in industrial production and trade in industrial goods, including through the use of the exchange mechanism.

According to Alexey Dykusha, head of BUCE representative office in Shanghai, in 2025, Chinese manufacturers regularly used the exchange platform to supply a wide range of industrial and consumer goods to Belarus, and there are reasons to believe that the volume of transactions in this segment of the commodity market will keep on growing this year.

“Last year, Chinese companies ramped up their sales of industrial and consumer goods through exchange auctions – from 930 000 USD in 2024 to over 12 million USD in 2025. Moreover, not only spare parts and components were sold through the exchange, but also industrial tools, special-purpose machinery, production equipment, and vehicles. As a result, transactions with goods of this category accounted for 67% of total exchange imports from China. Of these, 24% in monetary terms were import-substituting products. All this demonstrates the growing interest of Chinese suppliers in the Belarusian market and BUCE as a distribution channel. I believe this opens up additional opportunities for increasing mutual trade turnover and strengthening trade and economic relations between our countries,” Alexey Dykusha emphasized.

In 2025, 100 residents of the People's Republic of China were accredited for participation in exchange auctions for various groups of raw materials and finished goods on BUCE. Currently, the total number of Chinese users of the Belarusian platform amounts to 348 with three of them having a status of exchange brokers.