MINSK, 12 April (BelTA) – Director of the National Agency of Investment and Privatization (NAIP) Dmitry Krasovsky told the Economy of Belarus Magazine what areas of investment are of the biggest interest to foreign businesses, BelTA has learned.
“The woodworking industry is the absolute leader in this regard. It has drawn a great number of big foreign companies who brought billions in investment that added to the billions injected by Belarusian state-owned and private businesses - from small sawmills to large holding companies,” Dmitry Krasovsky said.
According to him, the peculiarity of the woodworking industry is that it fully relies on the availability of raw materials, which is timber. And here the ceiling has already been reached. “Belarusian timber is not enough for the extensive growth of the industry. Hence, we predict that in the next ten years the sector can grow on the back of investments in resource-saving technology and more advanced processing of raw materials,” he said.
Information technology is also of great interest to foreign companies. “The Hi-Tech Park is welcoming new resident companies with an impressive speed. However, since the IT sector is not capital-intensive in essence, it does not attract a huge amount of foreign direct investment. Yet, it makes a substantial contribution to such social and economic indicators as the export of services or the creation of high-performance jobs,” the NAIP director said.
