Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - Russia, despite the difficult economic situation, managed to maintain a positive trade balance at US$10 billion in September 2020.

I. The basis of the surplus is the high level of production of non-primary goods exported. So, in the first half of this year, the share of non-commodity exports in the total volume of export supplies increased by 10% compared to the same period of 2019 and reached 43%.

In January-September 2020, the volume of non-resource non-energy exports (NOE) of Russia, according to the Federal Customs Service (FCS), increased by 2.1% compared to the same period in 2019 and reached US$110.9 billion.

The largest NOE supplies are gold supplies, which increased more than 6 times (to US$12.5 billion), platinum increased by 45.1% (to US$5.5 billion), wheat and meslin (a mixture of wheat and rye) - by 7.5% (up to 5.1 billion dollars).

Most of all non-energy non-primary products in nine months of this year,Russia supplied to the UK (US$13.4 billion), China (US$11.1 billion), Kazakhstan (US$8.9 billion), Belarus (US$6.8 billion) and Turkey (US$6 billion).

The dynamic growth in the supply of Russian products abroad is facilitated by government measures to support business before and during the pandemic. Among such measures stand out: a) support for the production of machine-building, chemical, forestry and pharmaceutical industries; b) reduction of insurance and tax rates for IT companies; c) restructuring loans for small and medium-sized businesses.

In an effort to support this positive trend, the Russian authorities are trying to actively involve modern digital technologies for its further development.

II. In order to increase the non-energy export potential of the Russian Federation within the framework of the national project “International cooperation and export”, the Russian Export Center has created the information system “One Window”. The service provides businesses with the opportunity to get government and other services online for export.

The system makes it possible to receive 40 types of information from 11 departments that regulate the foreign economic sphere. Thus, through the “One Window”, exporters can issue a customs declaration, confirm a zero VAT rate, receive support for transportation and to participate in exhibitions and fairs.

It is planned to expand the functionality of the digital platform and add services for the electronic registration of permits - certificates of origin of goods, phytosanitary and veterinary certificates, export licenses, etc.

The advantages of this platform are the following:

1) saving time for exporters by reducing the volume of paper workflow. Paper workflow is replaced by the exchange of information in electronic form, all data is processed and analyzed in the system itself;

2) reduction of errors in the execution of papers submitted to the executive authorities. The "One Window" system independently identifies and automatically fills out the established forms using the data about the applicant specified by him during registration.

This eliminates errors when filling out and sending electronic forms to the executive authorities, which led to the return of submitted documents due to incorrect paperwork or violations of the filing procedure;

3) facilitating the search for potential buyers in foreign markets. Built-in analytical services and foreign databases allow the exporter to obtain information about the countries where his goods will be in demand, as well as “cold contacts” of companies that buy certain products abroad, by the name of the product or by the HS code.

In general, the diversification of the economy through the development of non-resource industries ensures greater independence from world prices for hydrocarbons. It is assumed that by 2030 the “one window” system will provide an increase in the volume of non-resource non-energy exports by 70%.

According to experts, the information platform will contribute to Russia’s accelerated exit from the pandemic crisis. It will also give an impetus to an increase in the country’s industrial potential and the expansion of exports of goods with high added value through the introduction of new technologies into production processes.