Head of Mises Research Center, Jaroslav Romanchuk, commented on Iran's intention to invest 55 million dollars more in the production of Samand cars in Belarus. According to the economist, there is no sense in the organization of car production in Belarus, because "it is cheaper and safer to import".
«The idea of import substitution is rather old. They wanted to implement it in the West after the Second World War, but the attempt failed», Jaroslav Romanchuk said in an interview with Tomorrow of your country. «After all, import substitution is an artificial intrusion to entrepreneurs what they do not want or can not do. At the same time, integration into the chains of transnational corporations is the normal scenario of import-substituting production».
The attempts to manufacture cars in Belarus have not led to notable success yet. Volume of Iranian Samand cars in 2009 has not reached 300 cars, while over the same period in Belarus there were sold about 200 thousand imported cars.
«The experience shows that Belarusian consumers are oriented towards cars made in Europe, Japan, America. Middle class Belarusians are willing to pay for quality, they do not particularly trust even the well-known brands assembled in Russia», noted in his turn, deputy head of Research Centre of the Institute for Privatization and Management, Irina Tochitskaya.
According to the expert, the problem is not only in consumer confidence. The car is a complex technological product, and there arises question about the need to produce quality spare parts. In Russia, where assembly plants of a number of famous brands are working more than one year, the problem has not been resolved yet.
