Business news

MINSK, 26 January (BelTA) – The number of resident companies in the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone will be at least doubled in 2017, BelTA learned from Alexander Yaroshenko, Head of the Administration of the China-Belarus Industrial Park Great Stone, on 26 January.

“It is necessary to at least double the number of residents in the park in 2017. Tripling their number is our ultimate goal. If we do this, it should bring at least $100 million in investments to Belarus,” noted Alexander Yaroshenko.

The executive also said that the Belarus President Administration had signed about 50 agreements of intent with potential investors. “It is understandable that the figure will change because life goes on, the economy of the potential investors is changing and respectively their requirements and attitude towards joining our park are changing. We don’t expect that 50 companies will become residents only because we have signed 50 agreements,” explained Alexander Yaroshenko.

He underlined that about ten companies are nearly ready to become residents of the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone.

On the whole, the experience of development of Chinese industrial parks indicates that any special economic zone starts operating as intended if it has at least 50 resident companies. “We intend to reach this number in two or three years,” noted the head of the industrial park’s administration.

In his words, there are plans to finish building the infrastructure in 2022, including automobile roads and railroads, engineering networks, and a major transport hub that will allow multimodal transportation by road, by air, and by rail.

Meanwhile, work will continue to simplify customs regulations, foreign currency regulations, and procedures concerning product certification, design and construction, and so on.

“Only by fulfilling the entire set of mentioned tasks will we be able to say with complete confidence that the Great Stone park has indeed become a nodal platform of the Silk Road Economic Belt,” stressed Alexander Yaroshenko.