OREANDA-NEWS. On 15 June 2009 was announced, that the Belarusian National Development Fund stood at 4.3 trillion Belarusian rubles (Br) in early 2009, Finance Minister Andrei Kharkovets told the lower chamber of parliament.

“Its revenues reached 636 billion rubles in 2008 –most of them were from profits of highly profitable enterprises. The expenditures of the fund amounted to 2.7 trillion rubles. They included budget subsidies for procurement of fuel and lubricants, reclamation operations, technical re-equipment, upgrade of heat distribution networks, etc.,” Kharkovets said.

The resource base of the fund increased by U.S. USD 943 million because of sales of state shareholdings in joint-stock companies.

“The money – 4.3 trillion rubles – stays on accounts of the Finance Ministry and the National Bank. We tend to reduce spending, despite the considerable sum, but the resources will come in handy in 2010-2012,” Kharkovets said.

The National Development Fund was established in December 2005 in pursuance of presidential ordinance #637. The Fund provides financing for the key social projects, strategic economic projects and long-term national investment projects.

The Belarusian government had approved the list of 95 state-run companies that were supposed to transfer a total of 491.75 billion Belarusian rubles (Br) of excess profits to the National Development Fund in 2008.