Business news

MINSK, 1 June (BelTA) – The World Bank is invited to invest in building the second runway of the Minsk National Airport. Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov made the relevant statement as he met with Cyril Muller, the World Bank’s Vice President for Europe and Central Asia, on 1 June, BelTA has learned.

Andrei Kobyakov said: “Developing the country’s transit potential is a strategic priority for us. The World Bank has already been of tremendous help in this regard. We would like to invite the bank to participate in a new project for building the second runway in the Minsk National Airport. The airport is a strategic installation for the country’s transit potential.”

In his words, in accordance with the action program for 2016-2020 the Belarus government intends to follow the policy aimed at ensuring macroeconomic stability and modernizing the economy. “Economic changes will affect quite a large number of areas. Those include the formation of effective financial markets, support for the development of the private sector, efforts to bolster the social security system, the formation of effective markets of merchandise and services,” explained the Belarusian head of government.

Andrei Kobyakov said: “We expect the World Bank to support us in such priority areas as housing and utilities, transport infrastructure, the development of the digital economy.”

In his words, the implementation of projects to modernize the housing and utilities system for the sake of providing consumers with quality, reliable, and affordable housing and utility services is a top-priority task for Belarus.

“I would also like to mention the bank’s considerable role in developing the digital economy in Belarus. An agreement has been signed on the project for modernizing the public finance administration system. Vigorous work is in progress to prepare the project for developing digital healthcare. I suggest we should not leave it at that and should continue work to prepare the project to create a national paperless trade system. I would like to once again express the desire for even tighter cooperation with the World Bank,” summed up Andrei Kobyakov.