VITEBSK, 17 February (BelTA) – The Lithuanian holding company VMG Group has decided to step up the investment project being implemented in the free economic zone (FEZ) Vitebsk and to increase the volume of investments up to €200 million, BelTA has learned.
The project provides for setting up a vertically oriented woodworking complex with the initial cost of about €100 million. It is supposed to be implemented till 2024. The complex will include enterprises to make wood chips, chipboards, and furniture out of chipboards. OOO VMG WoodArt has been set up as a resident company in FEZ Vitebsk for the sake of implementing the project. Taking into account the infrastructure available at the site, the investor is ready to start making furniture out of solid wood in addition to the previously mentioned plans. As a result, the number of jobs to be created thanks to VMG Group's projects in FEZ Vitebsk will be raised to 1,000. The investor is working on addenda to the existing business plan now.
According to VMG WoodArt Deputy Director Dmitry Golubev, the new furniture enterprise is expected to start making tables and chairs in 2021. IKEA, which is helping finance the project, will be the main buyer of the merchandise. “In the long run we have rather ambitious plans for this site. In order to implement them, we can take land plots with the total area of about 100ha. Of them about 58ha is already prepared for setting up enterprises or is in the design stage,” Dmitry Golubev noted.
Plans have been made by the FEZ Vitebsk administration to increase the energy capacity of the site and build an additional railway line in order to provide manufacturing plans of the Lithuanian company with infrastructure and bolster the investment appeal of the area on the outskirts of Vitebsk where about 500ha has yet to be taken.
Founded in 1999, FEZ Vitebsk consists of 16 sectors with the total area of nearly 2,800ha, including seven sectors located in Vitebsk, five in Orsha District, and one in Vitebsk District, Polotsk District, Postavy District, and Novopolotsk each. FEZ Vitebsk is home to 50 enterprises representing investors from 14 countries, including Germany, Czechia, Russia, Poland, UK, USA, Israel, Cyprus, and Estonia. The average number of listed employees working at the enterprises totaled 16,700 in 2019.
