OREANDA-NEWS. November 25, 2008. A draft state complex programme for modernising the national economy has been developed in Belarus.

“International experience demonstrates that the history of any country contains phases when cardinal solutions for modernisation on the basis of a complex programme approach are required. Management bodies of all levels should be involved in the process,” he remarked.

The draft programme for modernising the national economy provides for more freedom to corporations and softer governmental regulation of the real sector. There are plans to extend the application of free pricing practices, that is decreasing the list of commodities and services, prices for which are regulated. However, according to developers of the document, regulation of prices for some socially important products and products made by monopolies should be preserved.

There are also plans to reduce the tax burden on enterprises. Fees collected by the national fund for supporting agricultural producers and local profit dues, including the special fee collected for renewing and restoring public transport, will be scrapped.

Encouragement of small and medium business is one of the most important avenues of the economy modernisation. Efforts for reducing administrative barriers and facilitating administrative procedures will continue. Efforts will be put into reducing the number of activities subject to licensing, ensuring better access to credit resources. There are also plans to provide material support through legal fixation of the possibility of state registration of real property renting contracts, the possibility for small and medium businesses, which have rented premises for three and more years, to buy out the said premises at the depreciable value and other measures.

The draft programme provides for stepping up privatisation processes in Belarus and other measures.

Raising the competitive ability is the main purpose of the economy modernisation. The modernisation is not limited to the assimilation of new technologies and equipment. It includes modernisation of economic institutions and organisational economic mechanisms, noted Viktor Pinigin.