OREANDA-NEWS. February 19, 2010. In 2010 Belarus is set to raise USD 2.7 billion in foreign capital investment, Vice-Premier of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov said at a session of the permanent committee at the Advisory Council for Foreign Investments under the Council of Ministers of Belarus.

“The main investment goal for 2010 is to boost the volume of foreign capital investment Br7.7 trillion, or USD 2.7 billion. We think this goal is reachable,” said Andrei Kobyakov.

In 2009 the volume of capital investments was up 8.6% over 2008 accounting for 31.5% of GDP. According to the Vice-Premier, the volume of foreign investments including foreign direct investments has been continuously growing in Belarus. In 2009 the real production sector attracted USD 9.3 billion worth of foreign investments including USD 4.8 billion of direct investment. In 2009 Belarus’ biggest foreign investors were Russia accounting for 65% or USD 6 billion, Austria - 10%, Cyprus - 6%, Great Britain - 5%, Switzerland - 4%.

Today there are 5,000 commercial organizations with foreign capital including around 60 affiliates of transnational corporations in Belarus. The number of them is constantly growing. According to Andrei Kobyakov, their number is not significant so far. But Belarus will be working to increase it. The organizations with foreign capital make a significant contribution to the total export of the country. In 2007, the share of the organizations with foreign capital accounted for 20% of exports, in 2008 – more than 30%. According to the Vice Premier, in 2009 Belarus managed to attract USD 9.3 billion in many ways owing to the organizations with foreign capital.

According to Andrei Kobyakov, the goal of the current session is to inform the Belarusian and foreign investors about the efforts to liberalize the national economy and create the favorable business environment.

He also noted that being an open economy, Belarus was hit by the global economic crisis. “The crisis has affected the demand for the basic kinds of Belarusian products and aggravated the problem of non-payments,” the Vice Premier underscored. Belarus has undertaken a number of systematic multistage anti-crisis measures in all sectors of the economy to support the domestic market and help Belarusian manufacturers remain competitive on foreign markets.” Primarily, Belarus has undertaken tough measures to support the financial system of Belarus, pursue a strict fiscal policy, and preserve the bank liquidity.

Belarus has created favorable conditions for the registration of economic entities, adjusted the audit activities, and improved the tax laws (the Special Part of the Tax Code has come into force). In 2009 the customs legislature was improved as the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan was established. Apart from that, Belarus provided investors with additional investment protection guarantees. To this end, Decree No10 and a number of other regulatory legal acts have been adopted.

The steps towards the liberalization of Belarus’ economy have not gone unnoticed, Andrei Kobyakov said. Belarus has moved from the 85th up to the 58th position in the World Bank Doing Business rankings. Andrei Kobyakov expressed his hope that the Government will accomplish the assigned task and Belarus will make it to the top 30 of the most favorable business destinations. Belarus will keep carrying out reforms to achieve this goal.