At a planning meeting with the chairman of the regional executive committee. Power and business: turn to face each other

 Last Sunday, one of the TV channels aired a program about the quality of imported consumer goods sold in Russian markets. It fell on fertile Belarusian soil, prepared by protest actions of individual entrepreneurs advocating for the repeal of Decree No. 222 of the President of the Republic of Belarus. As you know, the document obliges them to have certificates of conformity for the products sold to the requirements of state standards regarding quality and sanitary safety.

The facts revealed by Russian TV journalists shocked people. It turns out that beautiful, bright imported clothes for babies have labels in the language of the country of origin (how many of us know a foreign language?): wear for no more than one and a half hours a day. That is, if a child spent the whole day in such new clothes, and then you wonder why he has an allergic reaction all over his body? And it's good if it's only allergies...

Equally eloquent facts were presented regarding the quality of imported fur coats, leather jackets, and other consumer goods. When it comes to profit, a rare merchant will think about consumer safety. Why should he, if abroad attractive-looking jeans of dubious quality can be bought for $5-10, and sold at home for several times more?

However, the state said: dear ones, you have had enough time to learn the culture of doing business. It is time to enter a civilized channel, to trade in quality goods that are safe for people's health.

Yes, good things cost more, and given limited purchasing power, you will have to make do with lower profits.

This is why Belarusian market traders are dissatisfied with the aforementioned presidential decree, and this is why they are protesting.

However, the President of the country emphasized: the "honeymoon years" for individual entrepreneurs selling goods without proper documents are over, it's time to work within the framework of existing laws, and stop making any intrigues around this.

This idea ran like a red thread through the operational meeting chaired by the head of the regional executive committee when considering the issue of the situation among individual entrepreneurs – payers of a single tax, engaged in retail trade in the markets and shopping centers of the region.

As reported by Alexander Trofimov, Head of the Entrepreneurship Development Department of the Regional Executive Committee's Economy Committee, today in the Vitebsk region, there are almost 24 thousand individual entrepreneurs registered for tax purposes, including over 11 thousand payers of a single tax – those engaged in trade. Together with those providing services for the repair of household items and personal belongings, they constitute half of the entire business community of the region. 14.4% of entrepreneurs are engaged in providing rental and consumer services, 12.4% work in the transport and communication sector. The least attractive sectors for business remain industry (4.6%) and agriculture (1%). The share of tax revenues from individual entrepreneurs in the consolidated budget of the region averages 2.1%.

Nikolai Sherstnev emphasized that in

The region has numerous economic activities in which business people are willing to invest. However, their initiatives are hampered by a number of bureaucratic obstacles that need to be eliminated. In particular, each district and city should form a package of proposals for promising types of entrepreneurial activity for the region, approve a program for the creation of small private enterprises that will develop them, identify individuals willing to engage in entrepreneurship, determine acceptable rental rates for vacant premises, develop a mechanism for providing vacant buildings for use, and support individuals at the start if there is confidence that they will cope with the task.

New requirements are not a threat to entrepreneurs who want to trade in light industry goods. Some initially purchased quality goods and were able to confirm this with documents without problems. Others switched to domestic products. Clothing produced by OJSC "Svitank", "Znamya Industrializatsii", footwear "Belvest", "Marko", and goods from other manufacturers of the Vitebsk region can be a worthy replacement. However, according to the head of the region, the management and marketing services of industrial enterprises should work more actively with individual entrepreneurs, provide them with goods for sale, include them in their staff as product salespeople, involve private structures in sales, open branded stores with their help, and seek other effective methods of joint work.

State policy for the development of entrepreneurship should be implemented through business incubators, the network of which in the Vitebsk region is underdeveloped and poorly utilized. The head of the region would also like to see greater activity from public structures operating in the entrepreneurial environment.

In particular, the NGO "Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers" unites only about 300 organizations, while there are 34 thousand private structures in the region. Together, they could create their own fund for supporting and developing business. The Chairman of the regional executive committee believes that a constant dialogue between state structures and individual entrepreneurs is also necessary, and intends to regularly address this topic within the year.

The second block of issues at the operational meeting was devoted to attracting preferential loans from the People's Republic of China into the region's economy.

It is understandable that borrowed funds are attracted when own funds are insufficient. During a crisis period, when the economy is struggling and budget revenues have sharply decreased, it is impossible to do without it. Moreover, the Chinese side offers acceptable loan terms – for a period of up to 15 years at 6.7% per annum with a grace period of 5 years.

As informed by Konstantin Cherny, Deputy Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee's Economics Committee – Head of the Investment Policy and Foreign Economic Relations Department, based on the directions of use and the terms of attraction being worked out, these loans can be divided into three groups: for financing social infrastructure, small and medium-sized businesses, and commercial projects in priority economic sectors. Currently, about 60 proposals have been processed, which are formed into packages by main sectors: industry, agro-industrial complex, housing and communal services, healthcare, etc.

The head of the region has set a task to clearly define the main directions for investing credit resources, which in the coming years

will be able to provide real profit. First of all, this is industry and agriculture. In particular, it is necessary to continue the construction of dairy farms to fully load the capacities of the processing enterprises of the agro-industrial complex. Priority should be given to regions that have no development prospects without additional investment.

The committee for economy of the regional executive committee, together with the districts, has been given two weeks to work out the lending program.

Lyudmila Myshlenok,
chief specialist of the main department
of ideological work, culture
and youth affairs of the regional executive committee.