Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 23 November (BelTA) – The ordinance on entrepreneurship development is the result of unprecedented cooperation between the Belarusian government agencies and private sector, Piotr Arushanyants, Director of the Entrepreneurship Department at the Belarusian Economy Ministry, told BelTA .

“The ordinance is the result of the unprecedented collaboration between the public authorities and business. On behalf of business, everyone, who was interested in the strategic development of the sector, participated in the work on the document,” he said.

Piotr Arushanyants said that the ordinance minimizes the interference of government officials with the operation of commercial entities. “We are talking about the deregulation of the business environment and entrepreneurship. The document drastically simplifies fire safety requirements, hygiene, environmental, and veterinary requirements. Even quantifiable standards have been reduced 10-15 times,” he said.

According to him, the ordinance will also help business reduce costs. “The fewer the requirements to business are, the less they have to spend on administrative expenses. This will significantly reduce production costs. Other important principles enshrined in the document is a declarative business registration, business self-regulation, the focus of audit authorities on the prevention of offences,” he said.

Piotr Arushanyants noted that the first results will be visible next year. “First and foremost, the results will manifest in simpler forms and types of business. In this case we are talking about the impact of other documents out of the package of regulations designed to improve the country’s business climate, namely those that regulate the work of farm tourist estates, artisans. By the way, we already see some results in the activities of artisans. The ordinance will impact, first of all, those economic activities that are not capital- and labor-intensive. We will see the growth of this business in the coming year. Then the impact will reach to cover those business that require more complex management systems, more sophisticated technology,” he said.

Piotr Arushanyants said that there are no specific forecast figures for the growth in the number of entrepreneurs. But thanks to the new regulations, we will be able to meet our main target, namely to increase the share of small and medium-sized businesses to 40% in the GDP before the end of 2020. It is a very ambitious task. Steps are being taken to achieve this goal,” he said.

On 23 November Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko signed the ordinance on entrepreneurship development, which is the key document in the package of regulations designed to improve the country’s business climate.