Business news

MINSK, 15 September (BelTA) – Capital investments are projected to increase by 7% pe year in Belarus in 2019-2020, Belarus’ Deputy Economy Minister Pavel Utyupin said in an interview with BelTA.

“Given the sustainable development of the economy, we expect the capital investments to increase by 6.8% in 2018, which will exceed Br23 billion. By the end of the five-year period, the aggregate volume of capital investments is projected to exceed Br100 billion, with the annual growth of investments at not less than 7% in 2019-2020,” Pavel Utyupin said.

“To ensure reproduction, the share of capital investments needs to be at least 20% of gross domestic product. In Belarus, this share was 19.8% in 2016. We forecast this indicator at 20.2% in 2018,” Pavel Utyupin said. In the EU the share of capital investments averages 18-25% of GDP.

In his words, while increasing the volumes it is necessary to think about the efficiency of investments. They should, first of all, be injected into technological upgrade and modernization of the country’s production capacities, creation of high-performance jobs. “Raising foreign investments, first of all FDI, is getting even more important given the shrining domestic resources and the need to pay foreign debts,” the deputy minister said.