Opinions & Interviews

Belarus attractive for European business, Kupchina says

LJUBLJANA, 6 December (BelTA) – Belarus is attractive for European business, Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus Yelena Kupchina said when speaking at the second meeting of the intergovernmental Belarusian-Slovenian commission on trade, economic and scientific-technical cooperation in Ljubljana on 6 December.

"Belarus is attractive for European business. EU countries are, in turn, a source of technology and investment for Belarus," said Yelena Kupchina. "The dynamic development of trade and economic relations is one of the key factors that will undoubtedly stimulate the process of rapprochement of Minsk and Brussels," she added.

The Deputy Minister drew attention to the fact that Belarus and Slovenia managed to reverse last year's negative trends. In 2012, the bilateral has been increasing, although not as fast as the countries would want to.

Ms Yelena Kupchina informed the meeting participants about the current economic situation in Belarus. The main objective of the Belarusian model of development is to build a modern competitive economy based on innovative ideas, implementation of the best industrial and technological developments, promotion of competitiveness on the domestic and foreign markets, working closely with partners in the international arena, she said. "In this regard, the experience gained by Slovenia would be very useful to us," said the Deputy Head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

She stressed that the Belarusian government is taking unprecedented measures to reform and liberalize the economy and these efforts draw a positive evaluation by the international agencies. Thus, on the World Bank and International Finance Corporation's Doing Business-2013 chart Belarus has improved its position in five across 10 categories. This year the country rose from 69th to 58th position among 185 nations.

Ms Yelena Kupchina noted that Belarus has also hit the top 10 leading reformers who have reached significant improvements in terms of doing business since 2005, finishing in third. This work continues. Today, the strategic objective is to make it to the top 30 countries with the best business conditions by 2015.

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