MINSK, 21 April (BelTA) – For the last few years the government has been enabling conditions to invigorate the entrepreneurship initiative and is interested in the rapid increase in the small and medium enterprises' contribution to the national economy. Belarusian Deputy Economy Minister Dmitry Yaroshevich made the statement at the third national business forum on entrepreneurship development in Belarus, the Economy Ministry's press service told BelTA.
The official said: “The development of entrepreneurship in Belarus is one of the priorities of the economy. It fosters competition on the home market, contributes to the creation of high-performance jobs, to higher living standards of the nation, and to the realization of projects of social importance. The contribution of small and medium enterprises to the development of the economy is manifested as the accomplishment of such topical tasks as the saturation of the market with consumer goods, the development of the sphere of services, penetration of new markets, and an increase in budget revenues.”
In his words, at present SMEs are an organic and growing part of the national economy. The tendency for the falling number of small and medium private companies has been reversed: the number of private SMEs was close to 376,000 on 1 March 2021. Emerging positive trends are confirmed by the latest foreign trade data. In January-February 2021 the physical volume of export increased in comparison with the same period of last year: the export of goods other than raw materials (excluding oil, oil products, potash fertilizers) rose by 6.7% while the export of services rose by 6.8%.
Speaking about state support for the private sector, the deputy economy minister noted that the government's policy is aimed at enabling conditions for the entrepreneurship initiative to manifest itself and for realizing the potential that Belarusian SMEs have.
