A small business incubator will open in Orsha in 2018
A small business incubator will open in Orsha in 2018. This was announced today to journalists by Oleg Matskevich, First Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, as part of a press tour to the Vitebsk region organized by the Ministry of Economy and the National Press Center.
"We have seven entrepreneurship support centers: four in Vitebsk, three in the region - in Orsha, Polotsk, Novopolotsk. And for now, two incubators, but next year, I think, Orsha will have one too," Oleg Matskevich noted. He emphasized that small and medium-sized enterprises in the Vitebsk region have a significant impact on the region's development.
"More than 140,000 people work here, which is 28% of the economically active population. As for the contribution of SMEs to the region's economy, last year it was 16% of goods output, 11% of industrial production volume, 32% of investments, and 33% of exports. These figures, in economists' terms, speak volumes - one could say it's a third of the economy. But this is the current level, which does not satisfy us," said the First Deputy Chairman.
According to him, the regional leadership pays special attention to the development of entrepreneurial infrastructure. Under the State Program "Small and Medium-sized Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus" for 2016-2020, infrastructure entities supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and small businesses in the Vitebsk region have received financial support totaling Br394.1 thousand since the beginning of 2017.
"We are also working on property issues: since the beginning of the year, 17 properties worth Br2.5 million have been sold to bona fide tenants. In addition, we have sold 50 units of unused communal property - regional, district, city," Oleg Matskevich stated. As part of the press tour, journalists visited the small business incubator of PG "Law and Order" LLC, as well as the Vitebsk Regional Marketing Center KUP.