MINSK, 7 June (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko heard out a report on the development of the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park Great Stone on 7 June, BelTA has learned.
“We are holding this meeting today because the government has submitted a legal act (a draft of the presidential decree) on the improvement of certain norms regulating the management and operation of this park,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The head of state remarked that the ecosystem of the Great Stone is attractive due to special financial conditions, developed infrastructure, logistics and geographical location. The stable and progressive increase in the number of resident companies (by 10-15% per year) and production facilities testifies to that.
“The park offers big preferences. We set up this park with a purpose to attract cutting-edge technologies to the country. We will teach our people to work with these technologies. And the experience of the park in industrial spheres will benefit Belarus. This is the main thing,” the president stressed.
He wondered how the country benefited from the establishment of the industrial park and the introduction of preferential conditions for resident companies. “It is very important. We cannot pass legal acts, especially presidential decrees, if we are not sure that the previous resolutions were productive,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added.
The Great Stone park is implementing projects with 69 founders from 13 countries (from China to Germany, Switzerland and the USA). The head of state remarked that the industrial park has been operating in certain legal conditions for almost a decade. Practice showed that certain aspects of legal regulation need improvement and revision, especially for raising the inflow of financial investments and bigger economic benefits from the park for the country in general. “There we can see a whole city with their own, let's say, not contradicting to the Republic of Belarus habits, morals and production,” the president said.
The draft decree is expected to revise certain conditions of the operation of the Great Stone park and to improve business regulations there. In particular, plans have been made to set up clusters and support innovative activities. “As for clusters, the organizational infrastructure, if it is important and necessary – there is no problem, we will go this way,” the head of state said. “The second thing is the improvement and support of innovative activities. What else do we need to do in this field? The park offers very attractive preferential conditions. Probably, we have not created anything yet. We will prioritize the interests of investors and the interests of our economy, state and society.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that the provision of additional preferences to resident companies of the Great Stone park should take into account the interests of the state. “If we get something, it means that we need to take certain measures. If we do it for the benefit of certain investors and not for the benefit of the state, it is not likely that I will support such proposals,” the president said.
According to Head of the Great Stone Administration Aleksandr Yaroshenko, more than $670 million has been already invested in the development of the industrial park. Budget investments accounted for only 5%, or $31 million of this amount, and were used for infrastructure development.
The park is oriented on four basic clusters: automotive components, electric transport and electric equipment, medical products and equipment, pharmaceutics, comprehensive logistics. As of today, the park unites 69 resident companies from 13 countries with the nominative volume of investment of more than $1.25 billion. About of half of these companies have already launched production facilities and created over 1,660 jobs.
The construction of infrastructure on the territory of 885 hectares has been already completed. In the coming five years it is planned to start the second stage of developing the park (417 hectares), increase the number of residential companies to 170 and ensure the inflow of investments at the level of almost $1 billion.
A draft of the presidential decree aimed at the improvement of the investment climate has been prepared to stimulate a new investment cycle in the park. The draft decree envisages the facilitation of administrative procedures, higher self-sufficiency of the Great Stone administration bodies, a wider range of business activities.
