Opinions & Interviews
PM: Development Bank should play a bigger role in Belarus’ economy
MINSK, 5 April (BelTA) – The Development Bank needs to play a bigger role in Belarus’ economy, Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said as he introduced Sergei Stolyarchuk, the new chairman of the Board of Directors, to the staff of the Development Bank, BelTA has learned.
“The head of state gave the go-ahead to the appointment of Sergei Stolyarchuk as the chairman of the Board of the Development Bank. The bank’s Supervisory Board made a respective personnel decision,” said Roman Golovchenko.
The government views the Development Bank as a key financial institution that is playing an increasingly important role in the country’s economic development and demonstrates good results across all main areas of activity. “Over the past three years, the bank has gone through a significant transformation from a credit and financial organization to a full-fledged development institution that takes an active part in implementing decisions in many areas of the country’s socio-economic development. To address its tasks, the bank established the Service and Reengineering Agency and the Agency of Foreign Trade Activities. Work has been completed on the creation of a project and investment center at the bank. The bank provides loans to implement the most important investment and infrastructure projects, to promote the export of Belarusian products; it is involved in import substitution projects and provides support to small and medium-sized businesses. Over the three years it provided Br26 billion to the domestic economy; the share in the country’s GDP doubled from 2.6% in 2020 to 5.3% in 2023,” the prime minister noted.
The head of state outlined the most important tasks for the country’s economy for the current year. “They are pretty challenging, especially when it comes to export, as the export growth target is 7.6%. In order to fulfill these tasks, all economic institutions, including the Development Bank, should mobilize their resources and work really hard. Being the chairman of the Supervisory Board and the head of government, I expect that the Development Bank and its new chairman will heighten the bank’s role in the economic development of the country. We should now embark on drafting a development strategy for the bank for the new five-year period taking into account the remarks the head of state made yesterday as he greenlighted the appointment of Sergei Valerievich to this position,” emphasized Roman Golovchenko.
He outlined the areas that require an increased focus during this period. Firstly, it is necessary to ramp up financing of investment projects and turn the project center into a fully operational institution. The second task is facilitating efforts to boost exports and to finance them through loans and non-financial instruments. The third task is to make substantial strides in the digitalization of the economy. The fourth task is to come up with an effective mechanism to provide financial and non-financial support for small businesses, to launch a fully operational platform for small and medium-sized businesses, which would ensure a smooth transition and transformation of economic entities in line with the recently adopted law.
“I am confident that the bank will maintain continuity and retain its innovative approach to addressing complex problems in the country’s economic sector. Sergei Valerievich has been working at the bank from day one; he has climbed many steps of the career ladder, he knows about the bottlenecks that should be dealt with in order to unconditionally fulfill tough tasks and performance indicators. I am confident that under his leadership the bank will continue its steady movement along the chosen trajectory,” the head of government concluded.
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