By Alexander Buinov
Around 300 state investment projects are being currently realised in our country, in various stages of implementation. This year, a third should be completed, meeting targets. However, the Government wishes to see greater attention paid to the quality of investments rather than their quantity.
“The number of projects within the state investment programme has been met, with 26 sites launched — including start-up facilities; the planned number was 23,” notes Anatoly Nichkasov, Belarus’ Architecture and Construction Minister. He tells us that 110 sites are coming into operation in 2012 as part of the state programme and, over the first seven months of this year, Br4.5 trillion has been invested. Of this, Br3.5 trillion has been from the Republican budget, while local budgets have provided Br1 trillion.
“Being budgetary money, we should treat each Rouble carefully. Br4.5 trillion is a notable sum,” underlines Mikhail Myasnikovich, the Head of the Belarusian Government. “Our state investment programme results are not bad but the major issue isn’t whether funds have been used successfully or otherwise. We need to look at what we’ll receive as a result of implementing these investment projects.”
Mr. Myasnikovich views the state investment programme as a vital document, but notes, “It is one part of ongoing work to attract investments into basic capital. We should examine all investment activity, looking at all sources of financing: enterprises’ own funds, credit resources, direct foreign investments and budgetary funds. We should analyse all four ‘legs’ of the investment ‘stool’.”
He notes the weakness of the domestic investment portfolio, saying that injections into machinery and equipment are less obvious than those invested into building factory walls. “We need to scrutinise the whole programme for 2013, assessing each site,” he explains.
