The Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus consist of the Ground Forces and the Air Force and Air Defence Forces, all under the command of the Republic of Belarus Ministry of Defence. Being a landlocked country, Belarus has no navy.
A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing in commodities. Commodity markets can include physical trading and derivatives trading using spot prices, forwards, futures, and options on futures. Farmers have used a simple form of derivative trading in the commodity market for centuries for price risk management.
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, also commonly referred to in English as Byelorussia, was a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 1922, and from 1922 to 1991 as one of fifteen constituent republics of the USSR, with its own legislation from 1990 to 1991. The republic was ruled by the Communist Party of Byelorussia and was also referred to as Soviet Byelorussia or Soviet Belarus by a number of historians. Other names for Byelorussia included White Russian Soviet Socialist Republic and Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Brest Region or Brest Oblast or Brest Voblasts is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center is Brest.
A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts defined by the exchange. Futures contracts are derivatives contracts to buy or sell specific quantities of a commodity or financial instrument at a specified price with delivery set at a specified time in the future. Futures exchanges provide physical or electronic trading venues, details of standardized contracts, market and price data, clearing houses, exchange self-regulations, margin mechanisms, settlement procedures, delivery times, delivery procedures and other services to foster trading in futures contracts. Futures exchanges can be organized as non-profit member-owned organizations or as for-profit organizations. Futures exchanges can be integrated under the same brand name or organization with other types of exchanges, such as stock markets, options markets, and bond markets. Non-profit member-owned futures exchanges benefit their members, who earn commissions and revenue acting as brokers or market makers. For-profit futures exchanges earn most of their revenue from trading and clearing fees.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is a global derivatives marketplace based in Chicago and located at 20 S. Wacker Drive. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, an agricultural commodities exchange. Originally, the exchange was a non-profit organization. The Merc demutualized in November 2000, went public in December 2002, and merged with the Chicago Board of Trade in July 2007 to become a designated contract market of the CME Group Inc., which operates both markets. The chairman and chief executive officer of CME Group is Terrence A. Duffy, Bryan Durkin is president. On August 18, 2008, shareholders approved a merger with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and COMEX. CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX are now markets owned by CME Group. After the merger, the value of the CME quadrupled in a two-year span, with a market cap of over $25 billion.
The national flag of Belarus is a red-and-green flag with a white-and-red ornament pattern placed at the hoist (staff) end. The current design was introduced in 2012 by the State Committee for Standardisation of the Republic of Belarus, and is adapted from a design approved in a May 1995 referendum. It is a modification of the 1951 flag used while the country was a republic of the Soviet Union. Changes made to the Soviet-era flag were the removal of communist symbols – the hammer and sickle and the red star – as well as the reversal of the colours in the ornament pattern. Since the 1995 referendum, several flags used by Belarusian government officials and agencies have been modelled on this national flag.
The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is a commodity futures exchange owned and operated by CME Group of Chicago. NYMEX is located at One North End Avenue in Brookfield Place in the Battery Park City section of Manhattan, New York City.
The Belovezh Accords are accords forming the agreement declaring that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had effectively ceased to exist and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place as a successor entity. The documentation was signed at the state dacha near Viskuli in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus) on 8 December 1991, by leaders of three of the four republics which had signed the 1922 Treaty on the Creation of the USSR:
The economy of Belarus is an upper-middle income mixed economy. As a post-Soviet transition economy, Belarus rejected most privatisation efforts in favour of retaining centralised political and economic controls by the state. The highly centralised Belarusian economy emphasises full employment and a dominant public sector. It can be described as a welfare state. Belarus is the world's 72nd-largest economy by GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP), which in 2019 stood at $195 billion, or $20,900 per capita.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus is the Belarusian government ministry which oversees the foreign relations of Belarus.
Belarus–Turkmenistan relations refers to the bilateral relationship between Belarus and Turkmenistan. Belarus has an embassy in Ashgabat. Turkmenistan has an embassy in Minsk. Both countries are full members of the UN, and the OSCE. Belarus is a full member and Turkmenistan is associated with the CIS. Currently, the ambassador of Turkmenistan to Belarus is Murad Yazberdyev. The Belarusian Ambassador to Turkmenistan is Oleg Tabanyuhov.
Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange was an electronic commodities exchange established in Hong Kong for the trading of commodity futures, options and other financial derivatives. The exchange was originally pitched as a platform to trade oil futures. In fact, it ended up trading mainly silver and gold futures.
The Iran Mercantile Exchange is a commodities exchange located in Tehran, Iran.
The Saint-Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX) is a Russian commodity exchange that was incorporated in 2008. It has offices in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Irkutsk.
Belneftekhim is an association of petrochemical companies in Belarus, subordinated to the Council of Ministers. It manages these companies and regulates several aspects of the petrochemical sector, including setting retail prices for gasoline.
Industry plays an important role in the economy of Belarus. In 2020, industry accounted for 25.5% of Belarusian GDP. Share of manufacturing in Belarusian GDP was 21.3% in 2019. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe described Belarus as having "a well-developed industrial sector and highly skilled workforce". In 2020, 23.5% of Belarusian workforce was employed in industry. In 2019, total industrial production amounted to 115.7 billion Belarusian rubels ; in 2020, it rose to Rbls 116.5 billion. Belarusian industry is export-oriented: in 2020, 61.2% of industrial output was exported. The most important sector is food industry. Other well-developed sectors of industry include chemical industry, automotive industry and manufacturing of other machinery equipment.
German occupation of Byelorussia, now known as Belarus, started with Germany's invasion of Russian Empire on August 1, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. During the occupation, 130,000 Belarusians were killed.
Aleh Fyodaravich Chakunkov, is a Belarusian diplomat who had served as an ambassador to Vietnam from 1998 to 2001.
