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Lukashenko comments on new investment bill
MINSK, 22 June (BelTA) – The draft law to facilitate and promote the implementation of investment projects was on the agenda of the meeting of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko with the Council of Ministers on 22 June, BelTA has learned.
The bill to facilitate and promote the implementation of investment projects was submitted for consideration of the head of state. According to the developers, the bill will help level off the situation and increase investment flow.
The president said at the meeting that the document had to be carefully studied before its submission to the Parliament. “In fact, the submitted draft law is to replace Decree No.10, which has served as the legal basis for investment contracts for almost 15 years. It was a breakthrough document in its time. Over the past years representatives of 20 countries have invested more than $8 billion. More than 1,000 projects have been implemented,” the head of state said.
The declining volume of investment, both external and domestic, has been a recent trend, which of course negatively affects the economy, Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “Any country today is trying to provide investors with attractive conditions. We should also create competitive advantages, so that money would be invested in promising, high-tech, innovative industries right here in Belarus,” the president said. “I am not against reasonable innovations, and I am always ready to support them. I would like however to hear your report on the essence of the draft law and its expected effect. Who is the bill aimed at?”
“In the current geopolitical circumstances, it is highly unlikely for Western investors to come to the Belarusian economy. Let us focus on others: eastern, Asian, African and other investors,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “We should also work with Western investors, we should not reject their proposals immediately.”
According to the president, social responsibility must make the basis of any project, including full time employment, good wages, a wide social package and, of course, tax payment.
“I do not think we need projects when they come here to, as they used to say, squeeze everything out of the people and pay peanuts (paying no taxes at all, and offering let us say $500 to workers), and take the main profit in the form of dividends out to unfriendly countries,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “We are not a banana republic, but a high-tech, highly developed country, and we must work primarily with our investors,” he said.
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