BELARUS

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BELARUS
We are always open for business
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Belarus in Brief

• Territory - 207 600 sq. km (ranked 86 in the
  world)
• Population 9.67 million (ranked 79 in the
  world)
• Workforce 4.5 million
• Literacy - 99.6
• Capital Minsk (1.81million)
• Regional centres Gomel (480 000), Mogilev (390
  000), Vitebsk (360 000), Grodno (320 000), Brest
  (300 000)
• Natural resources More than 4,000 deposits
  and fields of mineral resources, agricultural
  lands cover more than 43.9 percent of the
  territory, forests cover 37.6 percent of the
  territory, over 20,800 rivers and about 11,000
  lakes, mineral waters
• Total GDP - US 59.9 billion
• Real GDP growth rate 10
• GDP per capita () - 6192
• Inflation rate 14.8
• Exports US 34.1 billion
• Imports US 40 billion
• FDI inflow (2007, of GDP) - 3.96
• Gross Foreign Debt ( of GDP) - 28.4
• Moodys Rating - B1
• State languages Belarusian and Russian

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Belarus an attractive and profitable place to
invest market advantages

• Advantageous geographical location and a well
  developed transport infrastructure Eastern
  boundary of the European Union a well developed
  system of highways and railways two corridors of
  trans-European transport network - a direct way
  to Berlin (1060 km), Warsaw (550 km), Moscow (700
  km), Vilnius (215 km) and Kiev (580 km) seven
  airports.
• Highly skilled manpower which has accumulated
  experience of work at modern enterprises. Belarus
  is recognised by UN experts as a country with the
  best human development index among CIS countries.
  
• 46 of labour force of the country has higher
  and specialised secondary education.
• Highly developed industrial, scientific,
  technical potential. 30 percent of world outputs
  of heavy haulers, 15 percent of mineral
  fertilizers, 6 percent of tractors export of
  goods to more than 140 countries well developed
  mobile telephone communication, high-speed
  Internet 56 higher education institutes, 204
  institutions of specialised secondary
  education research and development potential.

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Invest Belarus smart thinking

• Political, social and economical stability
• Stable internal political situation, low
  crime and corruption rate, absence of
  international or religious conflicts
• Favorable investment climate
• Well developed investment legislation
• Favorable investment conditions to foreign
  investor
• Guaranteed right of unimpeded transfer of
  profit received from investments in the country
• Availability of international agreements
  regarding the avoidance of double taxation
  (concluded with 52 countries)
• Belarus entered the list of ten
  countries-regulatory reforms (according to Doing
  Business 2009, the sixth annual report published
  by the World Bank and IFC)

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Multi-stakeholder Partnership Projects, brokered
by UNDP

• Telemedicine development project
• The overall objective Improve public access to
  quality medical services in remote communities
  through development of telemedicine.
• Immediate project objective Better medical
  services related to cardiology through the
  development of ECG telesystems in small towns and
  rural centres.
• Partners Mobile TeleSystems, UNDP, Ministry of
  Health, Belarusian Centre for Medical
  Technologies.
• The role of UNDP
• the idea of the project was proposed
• foreign experience on telemedicine was introduced
• - dialogue between potential partners has been
  organized
• - advocacy and publicity for the project is
  provided

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Project Support for Establishing a Guarantee
Fund in the Republic of Belarus

• Main objective of the project to support the
  creation of a guarantee fund in Belarus by
  establishing a partnership among respective
  government institutions, commercial banks,
  international donor agencies and Belarusian small
  and medium-sized business, as well as
  elaboration of a guarantee fund investment
  proposal to attract domestic and international
  investments to the guarantee capital
• Partners Belarusian Union of Entrepreneurs and
  Employers Belgazprombank Department of
  Entrepreneurship of the Ministry of Economy.
• Role of UNDP
• a long-term partnership among prospective
  founders of a guarantee fund through organizing a
  corresponding working group was established
• the GF international expert mission in Minsk was
  arranged and meetings with potential partners
  (commercial banks, government) and other agencies
  were organized
• investment proposal Minsk Guarantee ?ompany for
  Small and Medium Enterprises was prepared and
  posted on web site http//www.export.by/en/?act
  s_docsmodeviewid1514doc66
• work at involving investors and the international
  organizations concerned to become founders of the
  Guarantee Fund is in progress.

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Agriculture

• Key highlights
• At present Belarus is a leading agricultural
  producer in the CIS countries.
• Belarus is fully self-sufficient in agricultural
  production domestic agricultural products
  manufacturing almost fully meets internal demand.
  
• In 2008 gross agricultural output in Belarus
  reached 5.8 bln. EUR, which is by 4.4 more in
  real terms compared to 2007 and made 8,4 of the
  GDP

• In 2007 total livestock of cattle in the Republic
  amounted to 4.01 mln. heads, including 1.5 mln.
  heads of mother cows.
• Belarus is a leading producer of potatoes. Per
  capita production of potatoes in 2007 amounted to
  900 kilos

• Projects
• Construction of an oil crops processing and
  mill-cakes and oil manufacturing units and of
  mill-cakes and oil at Slutsk Grain Products Plant
  OJSC (Investments 6,5 mln. EUR)
• Complex for cleaning crop seeds (cereals 10 000
  tons, perennial grasses 10 000 tons, vegetables
  200 tons) (Investments 3 mln.EUR)
• Construction of dairy farms in Vitebsk region

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Construction

• Key highlights
• There were 5.1 mln sq. m of housing built in the
  Republic of Belarus in 2008, which is by 9.3
  more than in 2007.
• It is planned that capital investments into the
  construction industry development will amount to
  845 million EUR in 2006-2010. In 2007 229.8
  million EUR were invested into the industrys
  development.
• The Belarusian commercial estate market is one of
  the fastest growing segments of the economy.
• Building materials market capacity was growing in
  2003-2008 by 12.5 per annum and made 4.1 of the
  aggregated Belarusian industrial production.

• Projects
• Technical modernization of the drawing shop and
  the wire and cable manufacturing shop at JSC
  Shchuchin plant Autoprovod (Investments 1,95
  mln. EUR)
• Foundation of a modern plant producing high
  quality building materials on the basis of a
  magnesia astringent for a low rise-houses
  construction (Investments 7,7 mln.EUR)
• Transformation of the Agros company to the
  Plastbau factory producing building designs
  under the license of Plastedil International
  Ltd (Investments - 4,6 mln.EUR)
• Production of thermal insulating materials using
  short flax-fiber at the free production spaces of
  the unitary enterprise Groniteks (Investments -
  4,7 mln.EUR)

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Food

• Key highlights
• Belarusian food industry production in 2008 was
  about 5.45 bln. EUR and demonstrated a stable
  growth about 8,7.
• The main sectors of the Belarusian food industry
  are the following diary, meat, confectionery,
  soft drinks, alcohol, fruit and vegetables
  processing.
• Belarusian meat and meat products market is a
  growing, non-mature and highly fragmented market.
  In 2007 market size reached 1.7 bln.EUR.
• The Republic of Belarus is a fully
  self-sufficient country in terms of milk and milk
  products production. In 2007 the aggregated
  Belarusian whole milk products, cheese and butter
  market size 1.45 bln.EUR.
• There are 21 confectionery producers in the
  Republic of Belarus. In 2007 total production of
  confectionery in Belarus reached 127.2
  thous.tonnes.
• The Belarusian beer market in 2008 was estimated
  at 300-400 mln.EUR or 47.2 mln.decalitres, which
  is by 5 higher than in 2007.
• In 2008 the aggregated size of the Belarusian
  soft drinks market reached 292 mln.EUR, which is
  by 27 more than in 2007.

• Projects
• Reconstruction of the confectionary production
  capacities at JSC Krasnyi Mozyrianin(Investments
  7,0 mln.EUR
• Reconstruction of a citric acid production at JSC
  Skidel Sugar Refinery (Direct investments -
  4,6 mln.EUR) . The project purpose was a citric
  acid production capacities reconstruction with a
  new resource-saving technologies introduction,
  which will increase modern capacities by 2 000
  metric tons.

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Tourism

• Key highlights
• More than 120 thous tourists visited Belarus in
  2008. 1,4 mln. transit tourists visited Belarus
• In Belarus there are 282 hotels (21 of them are
  certified by stars 3-5).
• More than 500 tourist operators work in Belarus
• Two architectural monuments are inscribed on
  UNESCO's list of the World Heritage
• The Castle Complex Mir in the village of Mir
  (Grodno region)
• The Palace and Park Ensemble in the town of
  Nyasvizh (Minsk region)

Project Tourist complex The Star of the East
(Investments 4,5 mln.EUR) The objective of the
present project is to construct a tourist complex
including -3 hotel -10 wooden houses
-entertainment facilities (restaurant, indoor
water park, bowling, casino, billiard, tennis
courts sauna, spa, mud bath facility, skiing hill
with a cable railway).
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Environment

• Key highlights
• Belarus is also often called the land of lakes
  (there are 20,000 of lakes) .
• There are 4 national parks (Belovezhskaya Pushcha
  is of international importance) 97 natural
  reserves, with 7 of them being of international
  importance.
• The forests cover the 1/3 of the territory of
  the country.
• 8 of the Belarusian territory is covered by bogs
  (1,7 mln.hectares). Now in Bealrus the project of
  UNDP/GEF Renaturalization and Sustainable
  Management of Peatlands in Belarus to Combat Land
  Degradation, Ensure Conservation of Globally
  Valuable Biodiversity, and Mitigate Climate
  Change is under effectuation.

• Projects
• Foundation of modern dolomite recycling plants
  and production magnesia cement, lime and
  astringent gypsum materials using energy-saving
  technology (Investments 23,0 mln.EUR)
• Paper single-use utensils production organization
  (Investments - 1,2 mln.EUR)
• Organization of the Modern System for Separate
  Collection and Processing of Solid Domestic Waste
  (Investments - 3,9 mln.EUR)
• Expansion of manufacture of wood fuel granules
  (pellets) (Investments 1,6 mln.EUR)

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Broad informational support of investors

• http//invest.belarus.by - market advantages,
  where to invest, investment climate, legal
  framework, key economic branches, successful
  projects)
• List of the investment projects
• http//w3.economy.gov.by/ministry/bip.nsf/alleng.
  html
• http//invest.bspn.by
• Minsk region http//invest.bspn.by/content/catego
  ry/3/8/11/
• Mogilev region http//invest.bspn.by/content/cat
  egory/2/10/10/
• Brest region http//brest-region.by/topic.php?ti
  d3952
• Vitebsk region http//www.vitebsk-region.gov.by/
  ru/business/
• Gomel region http//invest.gomel-region.by
• Grodno region http//www.region.grodno.by/ru/eco
  nomic/invest
• Agencies (members of GC)
• http//uniter.by financial and investment
  consultating
• http//vmp.by legal services for business and
  foreign investors
• http//p-g.by marketing, finances, business
  planning
• www.bkc.by consultanting centre