26 September, Minsk /BELTA/. The procedure for granting land for the construction of roadside service facilities in Belarus will be simplified from January 1, 2012. President of Belarus signed Decree No. 431 "On Certain Measures to Improve Relations in the Field of Land Expropriation, Granting and Use" on September 23, BELTA was informed by the press service of the Head of State. The decree is aimed at improving the regulation of relations in the field of land protection and use. It is intended to implement certain provisions of Directive No. 4 "On the Development of Entrepreneurial Initiative and Stimulation of Business Activity in the Republic of Belarus". This concerns the simplification of the procedure for granting land for the implementation of investment projects, as well as the adjustment of a number of regulatory legal acts governing land relations. Thus, land plots for the construction and maintenance of roadside service facilities will be granted without auctions. At the same time, the competence for expropriating and granting plots for the construction of these facilities will be transferred from regional executive committees to district ones. Citizens are granted the right to use land plots provided for the construction and (or) maintenance of a residential building, personal subsidiary farming, without changing their intended purpose, also for craft activities, provision of services in the field of agro-ecotourism, and other entrepreneurial activities. Non-state legal entities are granted the right to acquire land plots in private ownership, previously granted for use for the maintenance of capital structures belonging to them, at a price equal to 70% of their cadastral value. The decree also obliges local executive committees to put up for auction land plots for private ownership for the construction and maintenance of single-family and terraced residential buildings, at least 30% of the land plots included in the lists of vacant (unoccupied) land plots.