7 October, Minsk /Anna Kot - BELTA/. Foreign direct investment in Belarus's economy in 2010 is projected to reach $5 billion. This was announced to journalists today by Sergei Trofimovich, Head of the Main Investment Department of the Ministry of Economy of Belarus, as reported by a BELTA correspondent.
The volume of foreign direct investment for the first 9 months will be no less than $3.5 billion. In January-June of the current year, Belarus's economy received over $4.4 billion in foreign investment, which is 4.4% more than in the same period last year. Of this amount, $2.6 billion was attracted as foreign direct investment – a 7.2% increase compared to the January-June 2009 period. The largest volume of foreign investment was attracted to the transport sector – $2.2 billion (50.7% of the total foreign investment volume), to industry – over $1 billion (23.2%), and to trade and public catering – $689.5 million (15.6%). Russia accounts for over $3.1 billion of the foreign investment.
Over the 4 years of the five-year plan, the growth rate of investment in fixed capital in Belarus was 198.6%, against the 198-215% approved by the Programme for the Socio-Economic Development of the Republic of Belarus for 2006-2010. Taking into account the projected investment performance this year, the 5-year growth rate is expected to exceed the programme's target.
In accordance with the government's resolution of 10 February of the current year No. 169 "On Investment Activities in the Republic of Belarus in 2010", state administration bodies are implementing 542 investment projects with an attracted volume of approximately $5 billion in foreign investment. Creating conditions to increase the inflow of foreign direct investment is a priority for the coming years. Currently, new forms of working with investors are being developed: concluding investment agreements and attracting investment agents.
A significant surge in investment activity was triggered by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of August 6, 2009 No. 10 "On Creating Additional Conditions for Investment Activities in the Republic of Belarus". 255 investment agreements totaling approximately $11 billion have already been registered. Sergey Trofimovich noted that the adoption of this decree today creates an opportunity to clearly define mutual relations when signing agreements with investors, the amount of investment to be made in a project, the conditions to be put forward, and any legal disputes or considerations possible in case of non-fulfillment of these conditions. "All this will be fixed by the agreements, and it will be possible to work clearly," he said. According to Sergey Trofimovich, there were no such agreements before, and investors could work sluggishly. "We still have projects today where financing is proceeding sluggishly," he added. According to him, a survey of foreign and Belarusian investors was conducted in Belarus, during which almost all respondents spoke positively about the adopted decree. In the future, Belarus plans to enter the top thirty of the international ranking for investment attractiveness, he recalled. -0-
BELTA