Belarusian Companies Uncompetitive in Russia :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarusian companies are quickly losing grounds in Russia – the major market for the Belarus-made goods. That was the result of the research, conducted by the World Bank experts. Full outcomes of the investigation will be processed and voiced in two months, but even now one may draw a conclusion that the conditions for entrepreneurship development in Belarus are way more unfavorable than in other former USSR states, where the analogous study had been held, said on December 20 deputy director of the WB’s Ukrainian affiliate Vladimir-Goran Kreachich, speaking at the round table in Minsk.

“Belarus has the greatest number of qualified specialists and the highest level of culture in the former USSR, - said Kreachich: It’s not possible to invest into the economy, where the entrepreneurship lives in an atmosphere, filled with prohibitions and penalties.”

Kreachich stressed that the Belarusian authorities got to as soon as possible simplify the state regulation in four spheres:

- to loosen state control over the contracts (today, according to Kreachich, they control around a third of all contracts among the companies both state and private. Moreover, the state controls the volume of supplies, the forms of payment and other contract aspects);

- to diminish the state control over the price policy;

- to simplify the procedures of obtaining certificates and licenses. As claimed by Kreachich, today an average Belarusian company has 5 licenses, while a Ukrainian one (also criticized by WB for too much red-tape) has an average of 1,6;

- to decrease rent for the state-owned premises.