Investors invited to the databank

The logic is simple: the economy is either developing or degrading. Even a minor stoppage means regress as other countries keep moving forward. It is universally recognised (with reservations sometimes, though) that the economy of Belarus has been dynamically developing. The country has faced not a choice but a categorical imperative: to develop faster, to promote goods to new markets
The logic is simple: the economy is either developing or degrading. Even a minor stoppage means regress as other countries keep moving forward. It is universally recognised (with reservations sometimes, though) that the economy of Belarus has been dynamically developing. The country has faced not a choice but a categorical imperative: to develop faster, to promote goods to new markets. Our questions related to this sphere have been addressed to Yuly Kashinsky, Director of the National Centre of Legal Information (NCLI):

— How does the NCLI comply with one of the recent President’s initiatives aimed at attracting foreign investments into the country, improving the economic climate for businesses?

— In his statements the President has made an emphasis that “we will be doing our best to extend the economic co-operation with the united Europe. And we are ready to apply all possible efforts to make Europe feel at ease in Belarus’. One of our top priority tasks is to insure that the process is fully provided with necessary information and legal support.

The government has adopted the State Programme on Information Provisioning of Foreign Policy and Foreign Economic Activity of Belarus for 2005. It is urged to disseminate the objective information about Belarus’ economy abroad. It was also done before, but this programme sets more concrete goals. Today the country is facing a task to deliver the information to serious investors who analyse any step, and study all aspects of running a business in a country before investing their capital.

— How much do the terms of running business in Belarus differ from universally accepted?

— Talks on Belarus’ joining the WTO, which has recently taken place in Geneva, demonstrated that the majority of our partners have no considerable complaints about the existing conditions for trade and investment activity in the country. Belarus has fulfilled, to the full extent, the plan of law-making actions adopted by the government back in 2002 and presented to the organisation member states for approval.

Its most important element is the Law “On Government Regulation of Foreign Economic Activity’ adopted in the end of 2004. The document stipulates that all law-making work should be guided by WTO rules. It is the answer to your question.

— Can the NCLI provide the investor with all necessary information?

— As far as investors from CIS states are concerned, yes and we are doing it today. A new concrete step was made to simplify business activity in our country: a working version of databank of legal information “Business” in Russian has been developed. The bank contains legal norms of the national legislation related to economic activity and running a business, foreign economic activity and investment policy. It was developed jointly with the country’s foreign ministry, economy and justice ministries, the Supreme Economic Court…

The experience of the NCLI in creating and maintaining the Common Legal Classifier of Belarus allowed us to make the information search more precise, fast and convenient. All legal norms have been systematised and grouped into 11 theme sections. All of them are maintained in their current edition and constantly updated, i.e., out-of-date ones which are no longer in force are deleted.

The full version of the databank is available free of charge at the national legal internet portal of Belarus (http://www.pravo.by/win/other_legacts.asp). It is worth mentioning that it is also distributed by the NCLI through the network of our regional legal information centres existing in every region and in Minsk where it can be purchased on a CD.

Our legislation should not only correspond to the WTO norms, but also be easily accessible. For this purpose it should be translated into many languages.

A pilot English version release is scheduled for the end of the year. Tentatively starting from the second half of 2006 it will be distributed through Belarus’ diplomatic missions abroad and placed at the national legal internet portal.

By Victor Nikolayev
Заметили ошибку? Пожалуйста, выделите её и нажмите Ctrl+Enter