MINSK, 13 October (BelTA) - We see an interest among a huge number of international investors in Belarus, Chairman of the Standing Commission on International Affairs of the House of Representatives Andrei Savinykh said during the roundtable to discuss Belarus' investment attractiveness and the possibilities of the Investor Roadmap online resource in the context of the efforts of the parliamentary working groups on cooperation with the parliaments of foreign states to promote investment," BelTA has learned.
"We are discussing the involvement of the lower house and MPs in general in the effort to attract investments to Belarus. We have adopted a program of social and economic development until 2025. It is aimed at improving the quality of life of Belarusians. We will not be able to achieve this without setting up a large number of small innovative companies that will form clusters, create added value and in fact, new sectors of the economy,” said Andrei Savinykh. “The program seeks to level out the quality of life in the capital city and the regions. This means that the economic growth in the coming years will be driven by the regional centers and cities with a population of about 60,000-80,000. Small towns and district centers will not be neglected either. Plans are in place to create two or three new innovative enterprises in each of them. We need to think about how we could contribute to this process."
MPs work across the entire country. "They work in their constituencies, they know the local authorities and business communities well. They can see and support timely an interesting initiative, an investment project. After all, it is no secret that these projects often arise at the junction of various departmental interests. Sometimes it is not known who should be the first to support this or that project. I think that we can act as mediators who will increase the efficiency and speed up this process," Andrei Savinykh said. “Another goal of this work is to improve the business climate. Without a doubt, we want to create additional opportunities to attract investments not only from foreign but also from Belarusian citizens in good, high-quality enterprises, in the development of the country's production potential. For this, by the way, the parliament is now considering the law on foreign investments. Other activities aimed at improving the business climate are also in the pipeline."
Andrei Savinykh added: "Western countries that have imposed certain sanctions against Belarus represent less than 30% of the global economy. Today we see sources of investment, we see interest in the Republic of Belarus among a huge number of investors around the world. These are Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. I am convinced that with proper organization of work, we will always be able to pitch our projects and attract foreign investors," he stated.
The roundtable is set to discuss ways of attracting investments to the regions of Belarus, the possibilities of the digital information resource ‘Investor Roadmap' and also investment projects to develop inbound tourism infrastructure.
