Business news

Belarus’ PM unveils plans to set up industrial park near Baranovichi

KAZAN, 22 September (BelTA) – Belarus’ Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko has revealed the details of plans to set up an industrial park near Baranovichi modeled on the China-Belarus Industrial Park Great Stone, BelTA has learned.

“We are persistently promoting this project in Belarus. Now we are collecting information to finalize the regulatory framework for this. Tatarstan has gone further in this matter, we paid attention to this during last year’s visit. I can even say that we were inspired by them in a way,” Roman Golovchenko said.

The prime minister named the main task of this project. “We really need to integrate small and medium-sized businesses into production chains. We need to produce a lot of different products. Even the products that will not be used on large conveyors can still be needed by other industries. We all remember the shortage of many items in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. As soon as the Law on Cooperatives was passed, we saw a rapid launch of production of virtually everything: from zippers to jewelry, etc. Our people are very enterprising, but the problem is that very few people have enough money to launch their business. They need to find premises, to repair or rebuild the building, pay rent, install communications - this is very complicated. Therefore, the government or someone authorized by the government should invest in infrastructure and provide such entrepreneurs with a ready-made production site so that entrepreneurs will be able to move in this building, sign all the documents, install equipment and start operations within three days,” Roman Golovchenko said.

“Therefore, we are currently working on such a pilot project in Baranovichi. I can’t say for sure yet, but most likely we will start implementing it there. Maybe, it will not be that big. This location was chosen because of the availability of the necessary competences and very convenient transport communications, including road and rail. We are discussing a possibility to invite a management company from Tatarstan that has experience in managing such industrial zones with a special regime. This will be a commercial project. To make is successful, it should be run by people who have the relevant expertise and knowledge, not by officials. And the government, for its part, will provide all kinds of assistance with capital investments. We also talked about this yesterday. Most likely, one of companies from Tatarstan that has the necessary experience will take up such a project in Belarus,” added Roman Golovchenko.

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