Recoupment named only requirement for investment projects in Belarus' regions

MINSK, 10 March (BelTA) – Investment projects in the regions have to be able to recoup the investments. Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko made the statement at a session of the Council of Ministers held by the head of state on 10 March to discuss last year's economic performance and the accomplishment of priority tasks of social and economic development in 2023, BelTA has learned.

Roman Golovchenko said: “For the entire last year the government worked to fulfill the president's instruction to realize at least one investment project in every district in the current five-year term. Every district could independently work out and suggest a project for realization in its territory. Frankly speaking, the work did not proceed smoothly. Many districts failed to come up with initiatives. This is why we've decided to assign them the projects, which we believe can be implemented in these territories. For instance, the development of a deposit of basalt and tuff in Pinsk District, the production of packaging for storing dairy products in Buda-Koshelevo District, the creation of export-oriented foodstuffs in Oktyabrsky District and so on. As a result, we have a list of 129 investment projects. It was compiled according to the ‘one investment project per district' principle. Its total cost is Br4.3 billion, with this year's volume of investments at Br1.2 billion. Apart from that, there are plans to implement 51 import substitution projects.”

As far as the focus of the investment projects is concerned, more than a quarter of them focus on making and processing agricultural products (43 projects). Another quarter is represented by industries overseen by the Industry Ministry (45 projects). As many as 16% (29 projects) belong to woodworking industry, 8% (14 projects) to pharmaceutics, 7% (13 projects) to petrochemical industry.

“The lists have been approved by a government resolution. Upon proposals of heads of the oblast administrations and Minsk they are open and can be expanded with new projects. Financing has been taken care of. Ten projects on this list are already in the final stage. 27 projects will be implemented using proprietary savings of organizations. This year credit resources from banks will be needed to implement 54 projects, with the total sum at Br556 million. As many as 22 projects have been submitted to banks for consideration and financing. The credit sources have been identified by the government. The interest rate cannot exceed 8%. The ability to recoup investments is the only requirement,” the prime minister said.