By Yury Chernyakevich
Discussions on state-business co-operation have been ongoing for more than a year, with the country promoting joint ventures as the ideal path to realising potential and conducting modernisation.
Naturally, legislation is needed to guide such collaboration; despite adoption being forecast last year, no laws governing private/public partnerships have yet been passed. Vladimir Karyagin, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Republican Confederation of Entrepreneurship, believes that legislation needs to be passed rapidly, to keep up with activity within the Common Economic Space.
Mr. Karyagin notes, “It’s no secret that the Russian authorities plan to realise joint projects with private businesses, mostly through the famous Skolkovo Innovation Centre. Back in 2008, the Public-Private Partnership Centre was founded in Kazakhstan, leading to a host of investments. It’s vital that we also develop this area. According to my calculations, the state could attract billions of investments for joint projects by liaising with private businesses. I’m confident that there’s huge potential in this sphere and we mustn’t miss out.”
Mr. Karyagin is adamant that the Law on Public-Private Partnership must be clear in assuring private investors of the safety of their investments, including terms under which they can extract their funds. In fact, the adoption of such a law is necessary to join the World Trade Organisation, which also states that member nations must have partners to finance scientific developments. The passing of new legislation should help Belarus attract domestic businesses and private capital into the development of science, the creation of infrastructure and the construction of large technological sites.
At a recent session of the Assembly of Business Circles of Belarus, Economy Minister Nikolay Snopkov noted that domestic manufacturers can only become competitive through the joining of state and business interests. Recently, the Government approved a range of measures to support small and medium-sized entrepreneurship over the coming three years. Of course, success relies on real life implementation.
