MINSK, 17 February (BelTA) – We are planning additional measures to create an enabling environment for business, Belarus' Economy Minister Vladimir Zinovsky said in an interview with the Respublika newspaper, BelTA has learned.
Vladimir Zinovsky noted that work is underway to improve the system of punishment for law violations. According to him, it is necessary to make it commensurate with committed administrative offenses, and to expand the application of the practice of first-time violation warnings. There are plans to engage all stakeholders in the joint work on the criminal legislation in part of maximum decriminalization of economic risks.
In addition, there are plans to reduce the number of licensed activities, simplify the administrative procedures, and optimize financial reporting submitted to different agencies. “The government intends to improve the quality of lawmaking activities, introduce the institute of evaluation of regulatory impact. Every draft having an impact on business will undergo comprehensive assessment for such impact. This will command more attention to the legislative initiatives affecting the business climate, and will make the whole process more open to the public, and will allow for involving a wide range of experts in the discussion,” Vladimir Zinovsky said.
There are plans to establish a guarantee fund to support small business in the country. “Poor access to financial resources has always been a problem for small and medium-sized business. The guarantee fund will solve this problem for those who have good projects but lack financing,” Vladimir Zinovsky said.
There are also plans to exempt new businesses from VAT on the import of technological equipment. Apart from that, industrial platforms with necessary transport and engineering infrastructure will be set up in every city with a population of 6,000 and up.
Plans have been made to increase the amount of funds to support small and medium-sized business to 1% of the revenue of the regional and Minsk city consolidated budgets by 2020.
