MINSK, 25 February (BelTA) – The China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone and the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus (DBRB) signed a cooperation agreement on 25 February, BelTA has learned.
The document was signed by Head of the Industrial Park Administration Aleksandr Yaroshenko, Director General of SZAO Industrial Park Development Company Yan Gang, and Chairman of the Board of the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Zhishkevich.
The sides undertook to work together to bring strategic investors into the industrial park, finance individual investment projects and export operations, and provide information support.
The financing of infrastructure projects in the industrial park by the Development Bank will be part of the joint work. “As a potential borrower Industrial Park Development Company is promising and interesting for us. We are ready to support any infrastructure projects, which are implemented in the park, by financing them,” Andrei Zhishkevich noted.
He reminded that the mandate of the Development Bank had been expanded and now the bank can work with the projects it chooses on its own. “We look for projects of interest for us from the point of view of financing among the companies that reside or intend to reside in the park,” Andrei Zhishkevich added.
Export loans will also be part of the joint work since companies residing in the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone are mainly export-oriented ones.
“This year we intend to start building an international terminal to link transport flows between China and Europe via Belarus. The head of state has also decided in favor of building a rapid railroad between Minsk and the airport with assistance of the industrial park. The signing of today's cooperation agreement will give a nudge to these projects,” Aleksandr Yaroshenko noted.
The Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus (DBRB) is a specialized financial institution founded by the Council of Ministers and the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus in 2011. The bank focuses on developing the system of financing of state programs and on implementing socially important investment projects.
As of early January 2020 the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone was home to 60 resident companies from 15 countries, including 33 companies from China, 15 companies with a share of capital from Austria, Germany, Israel, Canada, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, USA, Switzerland, and Estonia, and 12 companies initiated by Belarusian companies. By the end of the year the park is expected to have at least 80 resident companies with the declared volume of investments at $1.5 billion.
