Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 18 October (BelTA) – Members of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus intend to step up their legal work for the sake of attracting more investments to Belarus, BelTA learned from Viktor Chaichits, Chairman of the National Bar Council of Belarus, member of the upper chamber of the Belarusian parliament.

The MP said: “Any country needs investments these days. Legislative efforts to raise investments for Belarus represent one of the kinds of work that lawyers do. In my opinion, no investors will come to work in Belarus if they are not sure whether their investments will be legally protected or not.”

According to Viktor Chaichits, foreign colleagues remark that many investors are not entirely aware of the advantages of cooperation with Belarus in comparison with other countries. Investors sometimes fail to grasp the advantages of the country’s geopolitical location, Belarus’ membership in the Eurasian Economic Union together with Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan. Many investors do not know and fail to take into account peculiarities of Belarusian laws. Respectively, more attention should be paid to legal work with a view to raising investments for the country.

The MP also mentioned legal education of citizens as another purpose of the work in the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly. “I have every reason to believe that many violations, particularly violations of tax and customs laws, are committed due to ignorance or poor knowledge of the legislation on the part of citizens,” said the MP.

Legal education of citizens is viewed as a necessary condition for the development of the national economy as well as small and medium businesses. It is very important to know international laws and Belarusian laws and use this knowledge to sign contracts between commercial entities inside the country and with companies outside the country. “I believe it is important to render proper legal support to all the interested parties. It is important to spread the word about the latest legislation changes. It is important to minimize court disputes and introduce mediation on a larger scale. I am convinced that before turning to courts it is necessary to do everything to reconcile parties in the dispute. It is necessary to educate people and convince them to follow the law. It is necessary to demonstrate to citizens that it is much more profitable to follow the law from the financial and moral points of view,” said the Chairman of the National Bar Council of Belarus.

On the whole, the senator is convinced that most of the adopted laws meet requirements of the society. However, life goes on, this is why it is vital to get information from the bottom level, from law enforcement agencies, and from citizens in order to adjust and improve the Belarusian legislation in a timely manner.