OREANDA-NEWS. September 1, 2009. A large Dutch company is ready to invest over €15 million in building a factory in the Minsk region for bottling high-quality potable water. The information was released by Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister Vladimir Tsalko on 1 September.

“The company intends to develop business in our country. Now we are studying the proposal. A letter of intent has been signed already,” said the Minister. Belarus is also in negotiations on setting up a new enterprise to bottle potable water with a major German investor. Businessmen from other countries also show interest in cooperation with Belarus in this sphere, too. “Many are willing to cooperate with us. I think in the near future the activity of foreign investors on the Belarusian market will rise because the domestic investment climate has largely improved lately,” remarked Vladimir Tsalko.

The Minister also added that the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry had developed a special action plan for effective utilization of the registered potable water reserves, including mineral water reserves. “We import quite a lot of such water while we have rich reserves. An action plan is needed to regulate this area and attract new investors,” he said. The developed action plan will contain information about mineral and medicinal water reserves as well as information about economically advisable locations of bottling enterprises.

Geologists believe that there are around 80 sites in Belarus fit for bottling high-quality potable water. This year relevant work is in progress in the Brest, Gomel, Grodno and Minsk oblasts. The company Baranovichsky Vodokanal has re-opened a potable water bottling workshop with the designed output capacity of 4.7 million litres per annum (550% up). There are also other ongoing projects meant to start manufacturing bottled potable water.