Opinions & Interviews

Unprecedented favorable terms for investors in Belarus

MINSK, 15 November (BelTA) – Unprecedented favorable conditions for investors have been created in Belarus. The statement was made by Prime Minister of Belarus Mr Mikhail Myasnikovich at the seventh plenary session of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council under the Council of Ministers, BelTA has learned.

The head of government underlined that Belarus had made a quality breakthrough in investment and taxation laws. Within two years the number of licensed business activities has been reduced by a third. As much as 90,000 licensees out of 240,000 ones are left. The work will continue, underlined Mikhail Myasnikovich. He also believes that visible progress had been made in taxation.

The Prime Minister reminded that Belarus ranks 58th out of 186 countries in the ease of doing business and is one of the top three countries in the scale of reforms. In 2011-2012 Belarus attracted $20 billion in FDI, 1.5 times as much as in the previous five years. The figure testifies to the creation of modern investment laws in Belarus that favor investors. “Our work in this area should be based on tasks of modernization, structural reforms, and the institutionalization of construction,” said Mikhail Myasnikovich.

Mikhail Myasnikovich drew attention to the penetration of foreign markets. “The fight for foreign markets is as fierce as the fight for markets of energy resources all over the world,” said the Prime Minister. “We have entered a new age in the development of the global economy. Now the trade and financial capitals get integrated rather actively. We have to be a competitive and interesting partner while fighting for markets. Belarus follows this way”. For instance, in Asia as many as ten joint ventures have been created recently. Those are new points of export in the growing Asian market with a solvent demand.

Mikhail Myasnikovich believes that in the 11 years of its work the Foreign Investment Advisory Council has evolved into an effective venue for a direct dialogue between businesses and the government. The Belarusian head of government said he hopes that the present session would work out useful forms of cooperation between the government and businesses.

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