OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2008. Only export-oriented and competitive companies will be supported by the state, said Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky at a session of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers to discuss the measures to maintain the stability of the country’s key and other enterprises, reported the Official website www.government.by.

The Prime Minister said, “At present, in the conditions of the global financial crisis we are focusing on the implementation of the innovation development programme.”

The enterprises that managed to quickly upgrade their production and secured their competitiveness will get the state support, Sergei Sidorsky said.

The head of the Belarusian government reminded that a set of measures was adopted in Belarus to maintain the economic security of the country in the conditions of the global financial crisis in October. They are aimed at helping the Belarusian economy adapt to the conditions of economic austerity, optimizing expenses and raw materials. “The financial resources were channeled into certain priority areas, the internal economic sector; a set of measures was adopted to support the banking system and promote the domestic products abroad,” the Prime Minister said. All this was designed to boost the exports of Belarusian enterprises, Sergei Sidorsky added.

In his opinion, the current situation is going to be protracted, because the foreign market does not show any signs of stabilization. The state should spare no effort to avert the downturn in the trade and Belarusian exports, especially with those countries where Belarus has already found its niche. Almost every company has developed a system of anti-crisis measures. Now these efforts should be put into practice to get the expected results, Sergei Sidorsky underlined.

The measures to liberalize the economy gave the enterprises more freedom to act. The major challenge we are facing today is to manufacture a product, sell it and gain profits. That should become the goal of all the enterprises of the country, the Prime Minster said.

Belarus will introduce the preferential tariffs on energy for GDP-forming energy-intensive companies-exporters. This is one of the anti-crisis measures designed in Belarus, Economy Minister Nikolai Zaichenko said at a session of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers.

He informed about the draft measures designed to address the most complicated economic problems during the global financial crisis. They include the measures to support Belarusian export and to preserve foreign sales markets, enhance the competitiveness of products, stabilize the financial state of organisations and optimize production and sales costs.

These measures give an opportunity to support financially the companies as the prices for products keep falling. This will also help “meet softly and flexibly the requirements which are imposed by the global crisis,” the Economy Minister said.

The most significant measures include the compensation for some part of loan interests from the national budget, issuing interest-free tax credits to the organizations that are facing the problems with marketing their products. Some kinds of raw materials and parts that are not manufactured in Belarus and are imported into the country for the country’s own use will be relieved from customs duties. Preferential tariffs on natural gas, electric and thermal energy will be introduced for key energy-intensive enterprises.

The legal framework has already been developed for most of these measures. Suggested by ministries and agencies, the Council of Ministers has prepared a draft resolution on the compensation for some part of loan interests for legal entities in 2009, and a draft resolution on granting a tax credit. A list of organizations has been compiled that in 2009 will be compensated a part of interests for using loans (their initial number is 73). The state support is to amount to Br153.6 billion. According to Nikolai Zaichenko, this sum has exceeded what has been left in the budget (Br113 billion), but the Finance Ministry and the Economy Ministry keep working on it. The national development fund is also to be involved in these programmes.

Some 95 companies would like to get interest-free tax credit for value added tax and profits tax. The term of the tax credit is one year. Its major recipients are the companies of the Industry Ministry, the Ministry of Architecture and Construction, the Bellegprom Concern and the Bellesbumprom Concern.

According to Nikolai Zaichenko, the support in the form of preferential tariffs on energy is not new. But it will be applied now. This issue will be discussed at a session of the commission for energy import under the chairmanship of Vice Premier Vladimir Semashko on December 24.

Specialists are also developing President’s instructions on establishing standardized revenue distribution.

Specialists are also developing the measures to promote the sale of goods such as timber at commodity exchanges. According to the Minister, companies should have an alternative way to sell their products. Therefore the logging value will be preserved at the level of 2008. Sales of some kinds of timer at commodity exchanges will be made voluntary in 2009. The most important resources will be sold via exchange.