OREANDA-NEWS. August 6, 2010. Austrian-Polish Kronospan plans to create a woodworking production in Belarus’ Smorgon, in the Grodno Region, worth a total of 150 million euros, the director of the National Investment and Privatization Agency (NIPA), Viktor Kovalenko, told.

“NIPA provides its support for this project in Smorgon, worth 150 million euros. The production will be based on state-controlled Smorgon aggregate plant and will make five types of products – chipboard, laminated chipboard, medium density fiberboard, OSB and floor panels. The latter four are not made in Belarus now,” he said.

The factory will take up to 10 years to reach the design capacity. “The project will be implemented in a few phases. The first one that we are working on now includes the acquisition of a land plot for approximately 2 million euros,” Kovalenko said.

He said NIPA was involved in the development of the business plan with simultaneous coordination with concerned state authorities. “We are preparing a third-level investment agreement. This will be a milestone project for Belarus, because not only investments, but also new technologies will come to the country,” Kovalenko said.