MINSK, 17 December (BelTA) – It is necessary to take another look into whether four troubled investment projects really need state support after all. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko gave the relevant instructions as a result of the government conference held on 17 December, BelTA has learned.
The head of state heard out the government's report on progress in implementing the largest investment projects in the country. Close attention is paid to 34 projects like that, including 22 ones already in production phase. Of the 22 projects 12 ones have reached the designed output capacity.
The discussion was thorough and substantial. The financial and operational activities of every enterprise with problematic investment projects were reviewed. Aleksandr Lukashenko drew attention to the matter of where the additional funding the enterprises need to finish the projects will come from. He stressed it is inadmissible to squander resources and guarantees are needed that the enterprises would not ask for help once again some time later.
Four enterprises are in a complicated situation that requires decisions of the head of state. The government had drafted the relevant presidential decrees. The measures the decrees stipulate were high on the agenda of the government conference.
Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Rumas told media: “The most complicated four investment projects out of the 34 ones need decisions of the head of state in the form of decrees in order to continue the implementation of these projects.” The government had discussed these projects together with the parties concerned. The president had not given his approval right away but had wanted to discuss these documents at the government conference in order to make sure once again that the state support measures these enterprises request in order to finish these projects are optimal and well-calculated.
The projects under review include three projects in the sphere of the pulp and paper industry (a bleached sulfate pulp plant at premises of OAO Svetlogorsk Pulp and Board Mill, the production of coated and uncoated paperboard in Dobrush and the production of substrate paper for decorative facing materials in Shklov) and the production of woolen fabric at premises of the Kamvol factory in Minsk.
As per instructions of the head of state the work of each enterprise will be reviewed. Their compliance standards, financial performance, the availability of a business strategy, efforts to improve the quality of merchandise, their competitive ability, and import-substitution efforts will be examined. The president intends to personally visit and inspect a number of the enterprises early next year. Their performance will be evaluated primarily in terms of technologies, output, profit, and commercial viability. The enterprises will be encouraged to exhaust every available resource in order to resolve the accumulated problems on their own to be able to request state assistance only after that.
As a result of the conference Aleksandr Lukashenko gave instructions to set up an interagency working group with broad powers. The group will have to promptly analyze once again the troubled investment projects, primarily from the point of view of the sums the enterprises ask for in the form of state support, whether they truly need so much money, on what they are going to spend the money, what sources will be used to return the money and when.
Sergei Rumas explained that the group will include representatives of the central government, the Belarus President Administration, government agencies, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, and the National Statistics Committee.
The prime minister expects the group to promptly finish the additional evaluation of the most problematic investment projects and the measures designed to fix the situation. Sergei Rumas expects the relevant decrees to be signed by the end of 2019.
Speaking about the need to set up the interagency working group, Sergei Rumas explained: “It needs to once again confirm that the documents, deadlines, and sums suggested by the government are justified and the enterprises have exhausted every other possibility for implementing these projects on their own.”
According to the head of government, the enterprises in Dobrush and Shklov need additional finance from the state budget in order to finish their projects while the Kamvol factory and Svetlogorsk Pulp and Board Mill need to shift the deadlines for paying off previously granted resources.
Sergei Rumas remarked that no decisions of the head of state are required to see the other 30 investment projects to the end since the enterprises can handle them on their own. “We cannot say that all of those projects are successful and have no problems, but the government can see how the projects should be completed and how the completed ones should reach the designed output capacity,” he said.
According to the prime minister, one figure vividly indicates the importance of timely implementation and commissioning of the investment projects mentioned during the government conference. “If these enterprises had worked according to the previously authorized business plans, the GDP growth in this group of enterprises alone could be 0.3% higher than what we have today. This is why the head of state pays so much attention to these 34 most important investment projects,” Sergei Rumas concluded.
