Business news

MINSK, 15 July (BelTA) – Belarusian construction workers will start building six houses in Russia’s Kaluga Oblast on 1 August, BelTA learned from Belarusian Architecture and Construction Minister Anatoly Cherny during the session of the Council of Ministers of Belarus on 15 July. During the session the Council of Ministers heard out reports concerning the fulfillment of instructions given by the head of state and the government with a view to improving the performance of real estate developers and manufacturers of construction materials.

According to Anatoly Cherny, with a view to streamlining the export of services the Architecture and Construction Ministry has authorized the enterprise RUP Belstroitsentr to become the single engineering company in charge of construction projects in the closest regions of Russia. Active work is in progress in Pskov Oblast. A project to build 13 houses in Smolensk Oblast is being implemented. Contracts have been signed and the construction of six houses with prospects of building 360,000m2 of housing in Kaluga Oblast will commence on 1 August. “Negotiations have been going on for a long time. We started the talks with negative profitability but managed to sign the contracts with 2.5% profitability taking into account the fact that Russia has not changed prices for homes built using state support,” noted the Belarusian Architecture and Construction Minister.

Anatoly Cherny stated that a joint venture Citic Belprom has been established for the sake of implementing projects using Chinese bank loans. “In the near future its functions are supposed to be expanded up to those of an international engineering company that will be able to offer turn-key projects in the Eurasian Economic Union,” said the official.

ZAO Belzarubezhstroy’s performance on non-CIS markets has been steady. Projects are being implemented in Venezuela and Ecuador. According to Anatoly Cherny, the possibility of implementing a social project for building 100 schools in Ecuador is under consideration. “It is a serious contract. Virtually four years of serious work on foreign markets,” explained the Minister.