The Belarusian Economy Ministry suggests a new concept for diversifying export for the next five-year term. The information was released by Belarusian First Deputy Economy Minister Alexander Zaborovsky during the session of the Council of Ministers Presidium on 9 June. The session focused on the conceptual foundation of the social and economic development forecast for 2016, the main directions of the budget, finance, and tax policy of Belarus for 2016 and the medium-term financial program for 2016-2018 in addition to approaches to shaping the major monetary management guidelines for 2016, BelTA has learned. Alexander Zaborovsky explained: “Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and government agencies we suggest a new concept for diversifying export for the next five-year term by splitting export into three parts. One third for the Eurasian Economic Union, one third for the European Union, and one third for the far arc countries.” Plans have been made to hit the target by 2020. “We expect to secure a surplus of the foreign trade by recovering traditional markets and by reaching new ones,” he stressed. The Economy Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus have prepared and submitted to the government conceptual approaches to shaping the budget, tax, and credit policy for 2016. The Belarusian First Deputy Economy Minister stated that the main purpose of the document is to observe a number of priorities. Gradual reduction of inflation is the key one. Inflation reduction stands for lower interest rates and more affordable loans for the real sector and individuals. According to Alexander Zaborovsky, the draft forecast for 2016 looks at matters concerning the effective operation of the industrial complex and returns from major modernization projects that have been implemented during the current five-year term. “We see the development of our economy as a mixed one. Both state-run enterprises and private businesses will be stimulated. Good mechanisms to support private business will be launched, including via a major project involving the World Bank. The project envisages comfortable loans for small enterprises via the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus. Chinese loans to the tune of $1.5 billion will also be made available both to the state sector and the private sector,” noted the Belarusian First Deputy Economy Minister. “It is important that current directions of state capital spending are preserved. We are not giving up on support for housing construction. Plans have been made for a good road construction program. Apart from that, we see a number of priority investment projects: the construction of infrastructure for the Belarusian nuclear power plant, new enterprises of [the Belarusian-Chinese car maker] BelGee and the China-Belarus Industrial Park, transport and logistics system projects. Thus, considering the versatile sources of growth we can say that our forecast is primarily aimed at ensuring macroeconomic stability in complicated external conditions,” stated Alexander Zaborovsky.
Written by belta.by
