By Andrei Laptionok: Today, Alexander Lukashenko, held two working meetings. Heads of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties and the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade submitted their drafts of the decrees from the "liberalization package".
The goal of the new package of documents is to engage the rural areas in the country’s economy still further. The private initiative in small towns and villages needs to be given more legal opportunities.
Entrepreneurs in these territories have already enjoyed some preferences and benefits. For example, in 2012, the Presidential Decree No. 6 actually improved business conditions in small towns by abolishing the income tax and property tax, as well as the state duty for a license. In the first year of the work of the new rules, the number of newly registered enterprises in the rural areas was three times higher than in major cities.
Yet, still more can be done to increase the economic potential of the regions, as well as to create favourable conditions for those who are engaged in business, as well as for those who simply live and work in the countryside.
The forthcoming five-year plan will be aimed precisely at liberalising the initiative of individuals and small legal entities. New businesses, in turn, will create new jobs and healthy competition. The quality of goods and services will increase, too.
At the moment, a lot is being done, and the preparation of a number of documents on the liberalization of the business environment in the country is being finalized. Particular attention is paid to the Belarusian rural areas.
Next week, the President has several more working meetings with a similar agenda. All the ten draft legislative acts that form the new package of documents on business liberalization are expected to be adopted by 1 October.
