(BelTA) – Belarus has opened its economy to foreign investors and privatization. Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich made the statement at the Belarusian-Lithuanian economic forum in Klaipeda on 18 April, BelTA has learned.

Nearly 500 companies with Lithuanian capital have been set up and operate in Belarus. In the last five years Belarus-Lithuania trade rose considerably. However, the untapped potential of Belarusian-Lithuanian cooperation is still huge, the Prime Minister is convinced. The business dialogue agenda now includes a lot of interesting projects for mechanical engineering, woodworking, logistics, retail, and agriculture. It is particularly important that most of them are high technologies and innovative solutions, stressed Mikhail Myasnikovich.

The Prime Minister said that science content and advantageous business operation terms for production sector companies are some of the factors that make the Belarusian economy attractive. “Belarus has opened its economy to foreign investors and privatization. At present a joint manufacturing project can be launched by any enterprise. Its shares can be sold to a strategic investor using transparent and understandable rules. We are ready to use the most modern forms of investment from setting up foreign-owned, mixed enterprises to concession contracts. Your initiatives will not be left unheeded and will be considered using principles of mutual benefit and good neighborly partnership,” Mikhail Myasnikovich told the Lithuanian side.

Belarus has European legislation. It guarantees all the rights of investors, allows the application of British, Swiss, Italian and any other foreign legislation and arbitration in contracts. Business registration and operation procedures have been radically simplified. “The process of market and innovative changes in our country is now irreversible,” he remarked. Mikhail Myasnikovich added that Belarus has one of Europe’s lowest corporate profit tax – 18%. High-tech enterprises are nearly completed exempted from taxes. An encouraging tax package is being introduced for investors.