17 Feb 2020 17:18

Foreign investment council to be set up in Belarus, head of EBRD to be co-chair

MINSK. Feb 17 (Interfax) - The Belarusian government will create a council on foreign investment that will be headed by the country's prime minister, and the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will be the co-chair.

The creation of the new body, which will replace the current governmental Foreign Investment Advisory Council, is provided for by the draft resolution of the Belarusian Council of Ministers. The document was published on the national legal website for public discussion.

In accordance with the draft, the EBRD will finance the activity of the new council by issuing a three-year grant for these goals. The Belarusian government will provide space for the council's administrative offices in the country's National Agency of Investment and Privatization.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will develop a new country strategy for Belarus for a five-year period by the end of 2020, EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti told reporters in Minsk on February 6 following a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"By the end of the year we plan to start developing a new country strategy for Belarus. Most likely, we will wait for the end of the presidential election campaign and we will start preparing a strategy with Belarus for a five-year term after the Foreign Investment Council meeting. It will apply to the period from 2021 to 2025 and will describe the main areas of work on the policy of reforms and our investments," Chakrabarti said.

He said the country strategy would reflect, first of all, the priorities voiced by the government and also a number of issues in which the EBRD is interested: working with state banks and enterprises, the work on infrastructure projects at both the national and municipal levels. " "The president repeatedly emphasized the importance of developing green economy in Belarus and we have already working in this direction," he said.