March 1, Minsk /Olga Belyavskaya - BELTA/. A hard alloy production plant is planned to be built in the Vitebsk region, the State Committee on Science and Technology informed BELTA correspondent. The new plant will meet the demand for hard alloy among domestic industrial enterprises and will give an additional impetus to the development of the Belarusian machine tool industry. The project is also aimed at strengthening Belarus's export potential by organizing supplies of hard alloy to CIS countries and far abroad. Investments in the construction of the plant are estimated at approximately $100 million. In the first stage, the new production facility plans to produce from 10 million to 15 million hard alloy products per year. In the future, these volumes are planned to be increased by 15-30% annually, reaching a production of 25 million units per year. The new plant will use the most modern technologies, including those for pressing hard alloy products, sintering, finishing, and applying nan composite wear-resistant coatings. The project is planned to be implemented with the involvement of investments from foreign companies. For this purpose, a joint venture with the Orsha Tool Plant may be established. As Sergey Matyushevsky, Head of the Scientific and Technical Department of the plant, stated, Belarus is interested in attracting leading foreign companies in the machine tool industry to the project to create a full cycle of modern industrial tool manufacturing within its territory. "The main task of the project is to master the best global technologies in powder metallurgy in the country, using our own developments, and we expect this idea to be of interest to investors," he noted. The construction of the new plant is envisaged by the State Program for Innovative Development of Belarus for 2011-2015. It is adopted to systematically modernise the national economy, restructure it, and enhance the competitiveness of Belarusian goods (works, services) in domestic and foreign markets. The main objectives of the program are the creation of competitive innovative, high-tech, and science-intensive production facilities, and the implementation of resource- and energy-saving technologies.