OREANDA-NEWS. January 11, 2007. The Government of Belarus has set an ambitious goal for 2008 of achieving a 25% investment growth, Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said during a session of the Council of Ministers, reported the Official website www.government.by.

According to him, in 2007 capital investments totaled Br20 trillion. Of them $1 billion were direct investments. The Prime Minister also noted that the Government will develop a set of system-based measures to increase the efficiency of the economy, to create the macro-economic conditions for attracting investment to Belarus.

Proceeding from this, the industrial output is projected to increase by 11% in 2008 over 2007, agricultural production by 8,5% and manufacture of consumer goods by 11%. Retail trade is prognosticated to rise by 13%, paid services to the population – by 12%.

“We set these tasks to meet the ambitious parameters set out in the socio-economic development forecast of Belarus for 2008,” Sergei Sidorsky said.