The Brest Oblast is located in the south-west of Belarus. It occupies around 32,800 square kilometres, which makes 15.7 % of the country’s territory. The Brest Oblast borders Poland in the west and Ukraine in the south.

The Oblast comprises 16 districts, inhabited by around 1.5 million people, 14.7 % of the entire population of Belarus.

The city of Brest is the administrative centre of the Oblast.

The city’s industrial potential is mainly channelled into producing consumer goods. Products offered by some companies are unparalleled in Belarus. The products are primarily gas stoves marketed under the trademark Gefest (up to 570 thousand gas stoves produced annually, with over 70 % of the figure exported) and electric bulbs made by Brest Electric Bulbs Plant (up to 190 million electric bulbs per annum). Brest-based companies also offer light industry goods such as carpets, sportswear, garments, knitwear, and hosiery.

Mechanical engineering and metalworking companies make the largest part of the city’s industry. Their number includes Tsvetotron, electrotechnical, radiotechnical, electromechanical and mechanical engineering works.

Food industry makes a major contribution to the city economy. The largest companies include Brest Meat-Packing Plant, Savushkin Product, Brestskoye Pivo, Brest Distillery BelAlco and others.

The city industry has a high export potential: products made by Brest companies are sold in over 40 countries, including Russia, Italy, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, and others.

At present there are around 300 core industrial companies in the Brest Oblast producing over $2 billion worth of goods per annum. Industry accounts for around half of the profits the Oblastgets.

Food, light and mechanical engineering industries are the main ones in the Brest Oblast. The well-developed branches include chemical industry, woodworking, timber, pulp and paper, flour-and-cereals industry, construction materials, power engineering. 

Products made by Santa-Bremor, Savushkin Produkt, Brest Meat-Packing Plant, Module (plastic window and door frames, insulated glazing units, module products, and other) sell well. Major efforts are exercised to keep exports in compliance with international standards. The Oblast is rich in natural resources.

There is a major granite deposit used for manufacturing building stone. There are unique clays in the Stolin district allowing production of bricks able to survive over 100 winters. Belarus’ largest chalk deposit Khotislavlskoye is located in the Malorita district, with the reserves as large as around 500 million tonnes. This quarry has a layer of pure quartz sand. The number of useful minerals the Oblast has includes building stone, easily fusible and infusible clay, glass, moulding and mortar sand, peat, sapropel, gravel. Deposits of slate coal and brown coal have also been discovered.

The Oblast agriculture specialises in meat and dairy farming, cultivation of potato, grain, sugar beet, and vegetables.

Major railroads, motorways, waterways and airways pass through the Brest Oblast.
The transit corridor Berlin-Warsaw-Brest-Minsk-Moscow, direct roads to Vilnius and Kiev connect Western Europe with Russia, the Baltic states with Ukraine and Southern Europe. Near Brest there are two modern border checkpoints for vehicles on the Belarusian-Polish border. In the Brest and Kamenets districts there are border checkpoints to Poland and Ukraine. Around 80 % of the CIS states’ land export to Western Europe passes through the Oblast.

There are several important railway junctions in the Oblast. The Brest railway junction is a major one, securing transit traffic of the CIS states bound for Western Europe in Moscow and Saint Petersburg directions.

The city of Brest has an international all-weather first-class airport, which can handle heavy aircraft such as Boeing 747.

Waterway traffic uses the rivers Pripyat, Pina, Mukhavets, Styr, Garyn, Dnepr-Bug Canal and Mikashevichi Canal.

The oil pipeline Druzhba and gas pipelines Torzhok-Minsk-Ivatsevichi and Kobrin-Brest-Warsaw pass through the Oblast.
The Brest Oblast maintains trade and economic cooperation with economic agents in 112 countries.

The Oblast expects good cooperation prospects within the framework of the transboundary association Euroregion Bug, which comprises the Brest Oblast of Belarus, the Lublin Voivodship of Poland, and the Volyn Oblast of Ukraine. Euroregion Bug concentrates efforts on fostering mutually beneficial economic links, cooperation in social and cultural areas, in issues regarding ecology and prevention of emergencies.

The annual multi-industry fair “Brest. Commonwealth” is of much importance for the development of interregional ties.
The free economic zone Brest was created in March 1996. It comprises two areas. The first one is located to the north-west of Brest and adjoins the state border near the border checkpoint for vehicles “Kukuryki-Kozlovichi”. It develops through building a customs terminal, warehouse facilities, and service facilities. The second area is located to the east of Brest, near the airport and next to the motorway Berlin-Warsaw-Minsk-Moscow.

As of January 1, 2008 FEZ Brest had 76 resident companies, including 72 functioning ones. There are investors from 19 countries in the FEZ.

At present FEZ resident companies are involved in fish processing, timber processing, furniture making, production of MDF fibreboards, confectionery, meat products, luminescent lamps, paints and varnishes, road-marking machines, garments, refrigerating equipment, electrical products, heat-resistant glass sheets, plastic goods, polyethylene film and others.

Santa-Bremor LLC is the largest FEZ Brest resident company. It was registered in 1998. The company produces fish preserves and ice cream as well as tinned sea food. $99.5 million has already been invested in Santa-Bremor. Thanks to Santa-Bremor’s fish product exports to Germany, Canada, the USA, Russia and other countries, Belarus is now considered a “sea power”. It is remarkable that the world’s capelin caviar output makes 6 thousand tonnes per annum, with Japan buying 3.5 thousand tonnes and Brest-based Santa-Bremor processing the rest.

Products by such FEZ Brest resident companies as STiM (construction materials and machines), Inco-Food (meat products), First Chocolate Company LLC are well-known in the CIS.

As of January 1, 2008 the FEZ drew over $390 million in investments

At present priority development avenues of the FEZ include creation of high-tech companies, pharmaceutical, automobile, electronic and mechanical engineering companies. Attracting investments for setting up facilities to produce goods for export and import-substituting goods is believed to be the most promising avenue.
 

Sightseeing attractions

The Brest Oblast is widely known abroad thanks to the memorial Brest Hero Fortress and Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the visiting card of the land. The Brest Oblast has a lot of memorable places reminding of Lev Sapega, Adam Mitskevich, Napoleon Orda, Tadeusz Kosciuszko and other prominent people.

All in all, the Brest Oblast has over 2,000 historical, cultural and architectural monuments, including the pearl of Belarusian Polesie – Pinsk, original Motol and Bezdezh, ancient Kamenets with its famous Belaya Vezha (White Tower), Ishkodl with ancient gothic architectural monument Trinity Catholic Church and of course, the hero-city Brest.

The memorial Brest Hero Fortress is a symbol of the deeds accomplished by the Soviet nation during the Great Patriotic War. The Brest fortress was one of the first to receive the blow of Nazi invaders on June 22, 1941. The courage and heroism of Brest fortress defenders have entered the history to be remembered for ever. The Brest fortress was built back in the 19th century following an order of the Russian emperor. It was solemnly opened on April 26, 1842.

The Oblast local lore museum can tell a lot about the history of the city. The museum’s affiliates include archaeological museum Berestye (built on the site where remnants of a town dated back to the 12th century were found), museums City History, Saved Artistic Values, Native Nature, Cosmos. In Brest there are two theatres – Brest Drama and Music Theatre and Brest Puppet Theatre as well as Brest Oblast  Philharmonic, which has an ancient music ensemble Kontrdans.

The museum of history of Belarusian Polesie in the town of Pinsk as well as two railway history museums – the Railway Machines Museums in Brest and the museum of the Baranovichi department of the Belarusian Railways in Baranovichi are of special interest.

Towns of the Brest Oblast welcome multiple international and national festivals and sports competitions. The most famous ones include an international theatre festival Belaya Vezha, January Musicale, a superlight aviation and aeronautics festival in Pruzhany, a musical holiday Belarusian Fanfares in Baranovichi, rallies of bikers and trophy raids.

There are 280 archaeological, 300 architectural, and 1,222 historical monuments in the Brest Oblast. The number includes Kosovo Palace in the Ivatsevichi district, a park and mansion ensemble in the village of Skoki, Brest district, a Franciscan monastery in Pinsk, a park and mansion ensemble in the village of Gremyache, Kamenets district, palace ruins in the town of Ruzhany, a chapel erected for “Stalwart forefathers who perished in the battle of Gorodechno on July 21, 1812”.

There are many unique natural complexes and natural monuments in the Oblast. The most precious ones are protected by the state. There are 117 protected territories and objects in the Oblast.
 

The national park Belovezhskaya Pushcha is a unique forest territory in Europe. It preserves the last of the once vast plain forests and unique plants and animals, primarily aurochs. The Pushcha was first mentioned in chronicles in 983, with access regulations close to those of a forbidden territory established in the early 15th century. The protected area was used to found the national park Belovezhskaya Pushcha in 1991. In 1992 it was inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 1993 Belovezhskaya Pushcha was turned into a biosphere reserve and awarded a European Diploma in 1997.

Belovezhskaya Pushcha occupies around 90 thousand hectares. Its flora and fauna include versatile plants and animals. The forests boast white fir, various kinds of fir trees, pine tree, witch-elm, over one thousand oaks from 300 to 700 years old, ash trees 450 years old, pine trees 220 years old, cedars 150 years old. Belovezhskaya Pushcha also boasts aurochs, red deer, wolves, wild boars, lynxes and other animals as well as various birds and fishes. All the naturalistic systems of Belovezhskaya Pushcha are preserved in their natural state. Visitors to Belovezhskaya Pushcha can see historical and cultural monuments located in the natural park such as a homestead of Prince Tyshkevich, an emperor’s road, wild-hive beekeeping facilities, an ancient tower Belaya Vezha and other places of interest.

Natural peculiarities of the land can be observed in the nature museum of the national park Belovezhskaya Pushcha in the village of Kamenyuki, Kamenets district.

The Brest Oblast is the heart of Belarusian Polesie. It boasts unique natural complexes combining forest and swamp landscapes. Despite industrial peat mining and land improvement the Oblast has preserved around half of the swamps in the original state. These territories are the home to the national park Pripyatsky. It is situated 250 km south of Minsk  and 350 km east of Brest.

Inundated landscapes in the park represent peculiar interest. The regularly flooded lands – in spring the Pripyat becomes up to 10–15 km wide – is now a home to peculiar vegetation complexes, namely unique oak groves and ash forests substituted in low lands by sticky alder forests and willow coppice, where more than 30 unique floodplain lakes and several small springs are located.

The park’s flora is represented by 826 varieties of higher plants and over 200 varieties of moss. One can find there all types of forests and swamps of the Belarusian Polesie. The fauna of the national park counts 45 species of mammals, 265 species of birds, 7 reptiles, 11 amphibians, 37 fishes. It is home to aurochs, badgers, lynxes, black storks, grey cranes, harrier eagles, eagle owls, spotted eagles, fresh-water turtles, natterjacks, smooth snakes, sterlet.

Visitors of Brest city and the Oblast can use over 50 hotels, motels, sanatoriums, recreation centres and tourist camps.