OREANDA-NEWS. Plans have been made to develop a program of structural reforms in Belarus, Deputy Finance Minister Maxim Yermolovich said during the conference held on 26 November to discuss interaction of macroeconomics with microeconomics and the influence of macroeconomics on the business environment.

"Practice indicates that the resistance of small and medium business to various crisis phenomena is higher than that of large companies, which are dependent on the markets that buy their products abroad," noted Maxim Yermolovich. In his words, the state will continue enabling the necessary conditions in the tax system and the budget policy to contribute to the rather fast and effective development of small and medium businesses.

"We are actively discussing these matters with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for the sake of working out a common concept and possibly organize a joint program of structural reforms in Belarus. The government has already prepared a preliminary plan of structural reforms that may become the foundation of the program," said Maxim Yermolovich. The key components of the plan are further liberalization of the economy, capital market and labor market, pricing practices with a view to creating a competitive environment and encouraging the development of private business.

The Belarusian Deputy Finance Minister added that a number of issues in the national economy have to be addressed. "You can see what is happening to the national currencies of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. The Belarus economy requires the government to make decisions that will allow Belarusian enterprises to minimize losses," said Maxim Yermolovich. Quite a broad spectrum of matters concerning the reformation of the national economy is still part of the agenda. "They necessitate the development of new instruments: financing, the development of stock markets, public private partnership mechanisms, and changes of the approaches used to provide state support to enterprises," stressed the Deputy Finance Minister.