By Veronika Buta: The Assembly of Business Circles, which took place in Minsk today, is the key event of Entrepreneurship Week in Belarus for officials and businessmen to discuss the most topical issues. The National Library hosted a presentation of a national business platform consisting of proposals for simplifying business processes in the country. One of the main discussion topics was shifting away from unnecessary inspections.
Initiated by the Union of Entrepreneurs, the discussion focused on over 80 proposals for improving the country’s business climate, such as a moratorium on new taxes and capital amnesty. Administrative burden imposed on businesses was a major problem until recently, but now it is gradually being reduced.
The Health Ministry has reduced requirements for public catering establishments. One of the main tasks is giving more freedom to private initiatives and ensuring the adequacy of penalties and fines.
Among the comprehensive proposals put forward at the meeting was high-level protection for entrepreneurs’ interests, the introduction of the private ownership of land, competition development and the elimination of monopolies and price collusion.
The business community has been heard - the Ministry of Antitrust Regulation and Trade has started creating equal opportunities not only in the communication services sphere, but also in such key areas as energy, housing and public utilities, agriculture and trade.
The aim of introducing trust management is to make unprofitable enterprises operate efficiently by transferring them for trust management for up to five years with control to be exercised by the state. The proposal has been annually put forward for eight years since 2009. In 2017, the business community has once again raised this issue with an emphasis on the need for good managers, offering to enhance their level with the help of a special computer programme developed in Belarus.
The community is ready to submit a special business development plan to the Government. By the way, many of the national platform proposals are already included in the country’s socio-economic development programme until 2020. The Parliament is now discussing the investment law, the MPs being active participants in the Assembly.
Over the past six years, about 200 regulations solving topical business problems have been adopted in Belarus at the initiative of the business community. To stimulate the creation of new enterprises, the Economy Ministry has proposed to exempt companies from paying VAT on importing technological equipment and create a guarantee fund.
The most important decisions adopted at the current Assembly will be submitted to the Government.
