Business news

Losses of Belarusian oil refineries due to tax maneuver estimated to reach $5.8bn by 2025
Andrei Bunakov said: “With the annual amount of processed oil at 18 million tonnes and the global price for oil at $60 per barrel, losses of the two refineries are close to $320 million in 2019 alone”...

Europe, China show interest in high-speed railway line between St Petersburg, Hamburg via Minsk
According to Grigory Rapota, once the idea of building this railway line was mentioned, financial institutions and railway companies showed their interest. “Even humanitarians have shown their interest because it is not a simple railway project, it is a social economic one”...

Belarus encouraged to take structural measures to reduce low GDP growth period
The period of low growth Belarus risks entering can be reduced by implementing measures of structural nature in 2020-2021. We’ve repeatedly mentioned it – the restructuring of the state sector, which will require stronger social security. It is also necessary to increase the effectiveness of the financial system”...

Opinion: IT comes up with many traditional sectors in influence on economy
According to Dmitry Krutoi, this sector has been the main driver behind the economic growth for the past seven years. Today IT services account for 6.5% of the country's GDP...

Interest in Belarusian-Swiss projects in IT, banking, pharmaceutics noted
The meeting in Minsk gathered representatives of 30 Swiss companies. Belarus was represented by about 90 companies and organizations...

Swiss companies interested in advances in AI in Belarus’ Hi-Tech Park
At present the Hi-Tech Park is home to 684 companies that employ over 55,000 people. The park has welcomed 247 new companies since the beginning of the year...

Great Stone new resident to produce electric passenger vehicles in Belarus
Head of the Industrial Park Administration Aleksandr Yaroshenko noted that this is the third company from Switzerland that has registered as a resident company...

Belarus offers e-bus assembly project to Kaliningrad Oblast
Prior to the meeting with the Belarusian head of state, the delegation of Kaliningrad Oblast toured Belkommunmash. The delegation members saw the company’s assembly shops and tested the electric buses...

Belarus eager to float eurobonds worth over $1bn in 2020
Sergei Rumas said: “As for 2020, we have plans for floating eurobonds. We are likely to do it in London. It is difficult to talk about a specific figure now but the sum will definitely be larger than $1 billion”...

Belarus seeks to raise up to €500m in EBRD investment annually
Belarus seeks to increase the annual inflow of investment from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) up to €500 million, Belarusian Premier Sergei Rumas said as he met with EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti on 21 November...

Belarusian e-buses to be assembled in UK
The UK has ambitious goals to convert to environmentally friendly transport - from creating Zero Emissions zones in cities to the full ban on sales of cars running on gas-engine fuel by 2040, Sergei Rumas said as he met with Martin Wheeler, Managing Director of CAD CAM Automotive...

Emaar Properties to go into hotel business in Belarus
Emaar Properties executives met with Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko on 21 November. After the meeting Aleksandr Turchin told reporters that the parties discussed a series of potential investment projects...

Prelaunch operations in progress at first unit of Belarusian nuclear power plant
The official said: “The first unit is going through prelaunch operations. In other words, construction work is virtually finished. Matters of beautification and interior finishing of the premises are left to be addressed. We estimate the readiness of the first unit at 97% of the total volume of the work specified by design documents”...

Belarus Investigative Committee, American Express to exchange data about cybercrime
The Central Office of the Investigative Committee is hosting representatives of international payment systems, including American Express, Visa International, Mastercard, international peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace Paxful, and Belarus’ currency.com...

Replacement of Russian loan with Chinese one to have no effect on Belarus’ budget
“The volume of money we intend to borrow from China is roughly equivalent to the volume of assets we negotiated for with Russia,” the first deputy finance minister explained...

Polish business eyes woodworking, logistics, food production in Belarus
For example, the port of Gdansk shows interest in logistics projects. “It is considering Belarus as a platform for cooperation as part the Silk Road, interstate projects. The interest is also high among Polish carriers, big players,” Sergei Semenov said...

Fitch affirms Belarus at 'B'; outlook stable
The agency noted Belarus' improving macroeconomic stability, high income per capita and a clean debt repayment record...

Belgrade to host Serbian-Belarusian business forum on 3 December
The business forum will highlight the prospects for the Belarusian-Serbian trade and economic cooperation, and current doing business issues. Bilateral commercial contracts and agreements are expected to be signed during the event...

Belarus among world’s largest producers of flax fiber, rye, cranberries
Belarus shipped agricultural and food products to 96 countries. Export to Russia accounted for around 80% of the total export. The top five export markets also included Kazakhstan (5.9% of Belarus’ total agricultural and food export), Ukraine (2.3%), Lithuania (1.8%), and China (1.6%)...

Belarus, China to implement 35 joint tech projects by 2021
“Joint projects cover areas like microelectronics, optical and laser technologies, biotechnologies, new materials and other fields”...