8 November, Minsk /Lilia Krapivina - BELTA/. The Belarusian Investment Forum, to be held on 15-16 November in Minsk, will help foreign companies make decisions on long-term projects in our country. This was stated today to journalists by Dmitry Klevzhits, Director of the National Agency of Investment and Privatisation, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. Representatives of major corporations from Holland, Korea, France, Japan, China, and Italy will attend the forum. "We will break the records of previous forums in terms of the number of foreign investors," noted Dmitry Klevzhits. At the same time, he observed that the organisers do not expect specific decisions on investing in Belarus from the participants. "Any investor is a pragmatist, any decision they make is very well thought out; for them, investing is a distance, a marathon, which represents the long-term implementation of a project. Therefore, we do not expect them to make a decision during their participation in the forum," believes the agency's director. However, many of the participants attending the forum are considering Belarus. The presentations of Belarus's investment opportunities, investment climate, and projects will help investors determine their next steps in Belarus. "This will concretise their vision of our capabilities and provide them with a basis for making decisions more quickly," he said. The Director of the National Agency of Investment and Privatisation also announced that documents on the selection of a financial consultant for the pilot privatisation project of eight Belarusian OJSCs with the participation of the World Bank will be signed in the coming days. He specified that the final documents will be signed before the start of the Belarusian Investment Forum. It is already known who won the tender for consultants. "We know who will potentially be our financial consultant, but until the final documents are signed, we cannot announce it," he said. -0-

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