Russian Capital Makes One Third of Total Volume of Foreign Investments in Belarusian Economy

As is reported by Petr Zhabko, First Deputy Minister of Economy of Belarus, during recent 9 months approximately $12 billion has been attracted to Belarusian economy which is 23.2% more than during the same period in 2007.

As is reported by Petr Zhabko, First Deputy Minister of Economy of Belarus, during recent 9 months approximately $12 billion has been attracted to Belarusian economy which is 23.2% more than during the same period in 2007.

According to him, the bulk of investment (63.8%) has an industrial purpose. Sizable share of the country’s investment goes to industry – 28%, housing construction – 20%, agriculture – 13.5% and transport – 9%.

“On the whole, all organizations in the republic are expected to draw $16.5 billion of investment in basic capital which 2.3 times exceeds the volume reached in 2005,” said Petr Zhabko. “About 800 large-scale investment projects are being implemented in 2008. One third of them is planned to be completed by the end of the year. About half of all projects are implemented according to the State Programme of Innovation Development while about 170 of them – within the framework of the State Comprehensive Programme aimed to develop regions, small and middle urban settlements”.

According to the First Deputy Minister of Economy of Belarus, the effectiveness of measures taken by the Government so as to improve investment climate in Belarus is confirmed by the positive dynamics of investment mobilization: in 2005 the investment made up $ 1.8 billion, in 2006 the sum amounted to $4 billion, in 2007 – to $5.4 billion. This year more than $7 billion are expected to be invested in Belarusian economy. In the first half-year of 2008 the volume of direct foreign investment totaled $1.23 billion which is equal to the volume of direct foreign investment in 2007 and 3 times as much as compared to the year 2005.

“One of our largest investors is Russia: 33.2% of total volume of gross foreign investment that the country attracted for the last six months. Swiss investment makes up 20.2%, British – 14.2% and Austrian – 10.7%. At present there are more than 4.2 thousand joint ventures and foreign businesses functioning in Belarus,” informed Petr Zhabko.