OREANDA-NEWS. February 24, 2011. The State Property Committee of Belarus may be allowed to deal with privatization of the enterprises on the list covering 2011-2013 without mandatory approval of relevant ministries and concerns, the chairman of the Committee, Georgy Kuznetsov, told reporters.

He said there was a list of 244 enterprises, in which shares are supposed to be sold in 2011-2013. “We are trying to alter the privatization procedure: a ministry or concern supervising the enterprise previously had to approve the project before we could draft a presidential ordinance to authorize privatization. Investors would come and go while we were preparing the documents,” Kuznetsov said.

“We have submitted a draft decree to the Presidential Administration to entitle the State Property Committee to privatize the enterprises that are currently on the list approved by the government. The president will decide which enterprises will be sold by tender, which will be auctioned, and which will be privatized. As soon as these documents have been approved, we will post the entire list of 244 enterprises on the website of the Committee and Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry,” he said.

A draft presidential ordinance amending the regulations on the moratorium on sale of shares is being reviewed in the Presidential Administration, Kuznetsov added. “On January 1, 2011, we lifted the ban on sale of all shares, but we have looked at our dairy farms, processing enterprises and we are now concerned that we might lose the processing sector. Therefore, a draft ordinance has been prepared to give region administrations a preemptive right to acquire shares in processing enterprises. The acquisition price cannot be set lower than the nominal value,” Kuznetsov said.

The Committee has also submitted a draft document to the Council of Ministers allowing enterprises to include expenses on discarding and demolishing property into costs, whereas now they are included in profits.

Kuznetsov also said the Committee suggested that region administrations should share some of their authorities with local agencies, for example, in decision-making pertaining to the construction of motorway service facilities.