London hosted conference “Outlook on Belarus 2016” for business representatives
The country conference on Belarus “Outlook on Belarus 2016” for business representatives was held in the EBRD headquarters in London on October 24th. The meeting was organized by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the business portal Emerging Europe in the frameworks of the “Emerging Europe Outlook on Belarus 2016” project. The main aim of the project is to get the attention of the American and European business communities to the advantages of working with Belarusian companies, recognizing their brands in the EU countries and to assist in building relationship with potential partners.
The representatives of the business and governing state authorities of Belarus, the European Union and Great Britain, company managers working in the sphere of finance, trade and investment and leading analysts took part in the conference.
“The last two years were not easy for the Belarussian economy,” mentioned Alexander Zaborovsky, First Deputy Minister of Economy. He also payed attention to the work under “new economic reality”, as well as conditions and instability in the region, especially in Russia and Ukraine
“We have adopted a detailed program, which has to promote macroeconomic stabilization in the finance and budget department. Moreover, it will help to discover an economic growth potential,” he mentioned.
The head of the National Agency of Investment and Privatization Natallia Nikandrava presented the investment potential of Belarus to the business community and told about the opportunities of business development in our country.
An Agreement between the Belarussian Government and EBRD concerning the Ecological partnership of the Northern Dimension (NDEP) and Loan Agreement (The water sector program in the Republic of Belarus, the 2nd phase) between Belarus and EBRD was signed during the forum.
The Loan agreement provides attraction of 21 million euros from EBRD for financing the modernization of water supply and sewerage systems in such cities as Lida, Orsha and Polotsk. The agreement was singed by Alexander Zaborovsky, First Deputy Minister of Economy, who represented the Belarussian side and Alan Piu, Vice-President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
EBRD manages the supporting fund of NDEP that currently offers grants of 6 million euros to Belarus in the frameworks of implementing the projects of the modernization of water treatment facilities in Brest, Grodno and Vitebsk.
Grants for three projects were approved during the 14th Assembly of Contributors of NDEP: modernization of water treatment facilities in Lida (3 million euros) and Polotsk (4.21 million euros), and the center heating system in Minsk (1.02 million euros).
Since the beginning of its work in Belarus, EBRD has invested almost 1.8 billion euros in 70 projects of different economic spheres of the country.
Source: NAIP
