MINSK, 13 February (BelTA) – A comprehensive monitoring of the state of state-run enterprises is in progress in Belarus, BelTA learned from First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Dmitry Krutoi at a session of the board of the State Property Committee on 13 February.
The official said: “When we work with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and during assessment missions taking place in our country, the public sector represents the most important bloc. I am talking about the separation of enterprises into strategic ones, medium ones, and those in an unsatisfactory financial state.”
Speaking about key avenues of work of the State Property Committee, Dmitry Krutoi reminded that all of them are already specified by the social and economic development program for the current five-year term, by the government's work program, and by other key documents. “First of all, we are talking about the transformation of unitary enterprises into joint-stock companies, the abolishment of the preemptive right of oblast administrations to buy shares, and the full-value launch of the stock market. Then there is work with insolvent organizations. There is already an agency to take care of bad debts in agriculture. Instructions have been given to consider ways to upscale the practice onto the entire country,” Dmitry Krutoi noted. In his words, the government and the central bank have agreed to step up efforts to create a market of bad debts.
The corporate management system will be discussed at the top level soon. According to Dmitry Krutoi, it is necessary to evaluate how intended projects and measures are being fulfilled and how new supervisory boards at enterprises operate considering top government officials have been assigned to them.
Apart from that, it will be necessary to put together a bill on state enterprises. The bill has been identified as one of the key bills the new parliament is going to work on.
The first deputy prime minister also drew attention to the need for clear rules of interaction with investors. For instance, several loss-making agricultural enterprises were supposed to be sold to a foreign investor in Grodno Oblast. However, the procedure was protracted for no good reason. It is a wakeup call for the National Agency of Investment and Privatization, which is responsible for streamlining interaction with investors, Dmitry Krutoi believes.
