OREANDA-NEWS. December 22, 2009. More than 1,200 small companies were set up in small and medium-sized towns of Belarus in January-September. There is a total of 8,900 small companies now in small towns.

In January-September, the industrial output in small and medium-sized towns made up Br11.4 trillion, up 1.6% over the same period last year. The production of consumer goods went up 6.2% to Br5.4 trillion.

The measures envisaged in the state comprehensive programme to develop regions, small and medium-sized towns for 2007-2010 helped increase the employment in small towns to 826,700 people as against 813,800 in the same period last year. The unemployment rate was down by 924 people, or 10.5% from January-September 2008. As a result, the jobless rate went down from 1.1% to 0.9%. New 23,000 jobs were created. The nominal wages in small town increased in September to Br858,800 (as against Br771,600 in September 2008).

More than 26,000 of the unemployed in small and medium-sized settlements have been employed, and about 600 unemployed received financial support for starting a new business. More than 3,900 of unemployed took part in an employment training and retraining program.

In January-September 2009, more than Br4 trillion of capital investments was used, and about 802,000 square meters of housing were built in small and medium sized settlements.

All in all, since the start of the programme, 99 important investment projects have been completed, which allowed creating more than 2,770 jobs, including more than 800 jobs in January-September 2009. More than 643 state-owned facilities were put into operation and 114 state-owned facilities were sold in January-September 2009.