By Alexey Alexandrov
The developers are confident that the new amendments, reducing the volume of paperwork in favour of more meaningful laws, will come into force in January. The Ministry of Economics tells us that the new legislation aims to uphold the inadmissibility of arbitrary interference in private affairs, alongside equality for investors and the protection of rights from violation. Sergey Vaitekhovsky, the Head of the Chief Investment Department of the Ministry of Economy, explains that investors won’t be limited in their sources of financing or amount of invested funds, and will gain the right to land leases and ownership. They will also be able to address not only the Belarusian judiciary but international arbitration courts, as necessary.
Tatiana Mantsevich, who heads the Department for State Policy on Foreign Investment Attraction, emphasises, “In working on this draft law, we aimed to maximise advantages for foreign and domestic investors while equalising their conditions. We need to now make this principle clear to all government agencies involved.
While creating the draft law, specialists from the Economy Ministry worked with foreign experts — such as the International Finance Corporation and the Austrian Ministry of Finance. The document is certainly timely but six months will be needed to see how it performs in practice.
