“Here is where we are on the plan,” said Alexei Semenenkov, poking a finger at a colourful zoning map and peering into the mixed pine and birch forest stretching into the distance. “One day we’ll have a city here – roads, factories, apartments, shops and parks.”

Project engineer Mr Semenenkov was standing on the site of what the government of Belarus hopes will become a new $5bn joint Chinese-Belarusian industrial park near Minsk’s international airport. So far only $2m has been spent on preliminary planning – but by 2030 the project is supposed to become a huge high-tech hub and a city housing 150,000 people across 90 sq km.

The industrial park is a key part of the government’s strategy to boost foreign investment that amounted to a lacklustre $1.3bn last year, largely thanks to Russian funds – and to increase Belarus’s exports, which are dominated by refined fuels, potash and increasingly uncompetitive heavy machinery.