Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 14 June (BelTA) – World Bank projects are implemented in Belarus on time and up to high standards. World Bank Country Manager for Belarus Young Chul Kim made the statement as he met with members of the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament on 14 June, BelTA has learned.

Young Chul Kim was satisfied with the fact that the volume of World Bank funding available to Belarus and the number of projects have been considerably increased in the last three years. “In this period we expanded contacts and went beyond infrastructure projects. Now we also take care of economic management and the management of human resources. This is why we’ve been able to reach very good and useful cooperation virtually in all the fields your parliamentary commissions oversee,” the World Bank representative told the MPs.

Young Chul Kim said he believes that through joint efforts the sides had managed to change the recognition of the development and growth capabilities that Belarus has as a middle-income country. “We are now starting preparing a partnership strategy for the next period on a very positive note because Belarus has established itself as a country where projects and events are implemented on time, with excellent quality and at a lower cost, thus allowing channeling the saved money into new projects,” noted the World Bank country manager for Belarus.

Talking to mass media, Young Chul Kim noted he will soon quit his job in Belarus where he had worked for 3.5 years. “I am optimistic about the future of your country and the economy,” he admitted. In his words, despite economic difficulties consistent economic reforms have been observed in the last few years. Many of the reforms were recommended by the World Bank and were implemented.

“The global economy is recovering after a number of periods of low growth. This moment represents another opportunity for Belarus to announce itself to the world market,” Young Chul Kim was convinced. He also said he believes that partnership relations with foreign investors play an exceptionally important role in efforts to step up Belarus’ presence on foreign markets.

Young Chul Kim noted that Belarus is ranked 37^th in the World Bank’s Doing Business Index. The country was ranked much lower than that ten years ago.

The World Bank country manager for Belarus praised Belarus’ allowing foreigners to visit the country for five days at a time without visas. Results of this measure were obvious when Minsk hosted Central European Initiative (CEI) events a short while ago. According to the source, Belarus has made a number of steps, which do not require financial investments, yet allow foreign investors to easily visit the country.