Belarusian economy minister identifies focus points of One District, One Project initiative

Belarusian Economy Minister Yuri Chebotar talked about positive effects of the One District, One Project initiative after an offsite session of the expert advisory board under the Presidium of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus. The offsite session took place in the town of Kopys, Orsha District, Vitebsk Oblast on 18 December, BelTA has learned.

The economy minister noted that matters concerning the realization of investment projects as part of the One District, One Project initiative as well as the overall development of the investment agenda in the regions were discussed during the session. Yuri Chebotar drew attention to two important blocks.

“The first one is the fact that our updated law on investments has been in effect for half a year already. We’ve stated that our novelties that we’d been promoting are now in demand among our enterprises. Let me remind you that those are tools like budget transfers, investment contracts, and a number of other ones. We have practically about 40 projects, which are expected to leverage these tools soon,” he said. “Secondly, the One District, One Project initiative was reviewed. Indeed, small steps were made at the beginning. Some districts didn’t even have projects. This is why ideas were imposed in some places. When we offered preferential-rate loans for implementing these projects and encouraged the private sector to return to their homeland, the private sector saw that this initiative is already going kind of nationwide.”

Yuri Chebotar stressed that this initiative has seriously picked up the pace: the number of projects stood at 120 two years ago, now the number exceeds 200. “We have success stories today. Projects in a number of districts have been implemented. And most importantly they create new competences. For instance, the production of accumulators in Pinsk and so on,” he said.

By demonstrating these success stories, municipal authorities can show to potential businessmen that it is possible to continue development, to launch new enterprises and manufacturing facilities. The economy minister remarked that it is the effect he and his colleagues count on.

“Within the framework of the One District, One Project initiative we intend that 2025 will see up to 180 projects like that according to our calculations. More than 10,000 jobs have been created. Br8.5 billion is the price. It is a decent contribution to the development of our regions,” Yuri Chebotar said. “There are also projects that will develop past 2025, 2026, and so on. In other words, we will add to the initiative next year, this is why the list will keep growing.”

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