Investment growth and economic reforms promise Vitebsk region Belarus's accession to the WTO

As part of the WTO Week, which is taking place in our country, a round table was held in Vitebsk, where representatives of local authorities and the business community learned about the prospects of Belarus's accession to the World Trade Organization.

This process is one of the priority tasks of the state's foreign trade policy. WTO membership will allow us to ensure stable and predictable trading conditions with countries of the international community. The government has identified the United Nations as the main partner in integrating the national economy into the global trading system. Under its auspices, the multi-stage project "Assistance to the Government of the Republic of Belarus in accession to the World Trade Organization by strengthening expert and institutional capacity" has been implemented since 2008, and since 2010 it has been carried out with the financial support of the Russian Federation. Negotiations on accession to the WTO are conducted in the following areas: bringing national legislation into compliance with WTO multilateral agreements, market access for goods and services, state support for agriculture.

— Today, Belarus has entered the final stage of the negotiation process, — stated Igor Pilipenko, advisor of the WTO and Trade Regimes Unification Department of the Foreign Trade Policy Directorate of the Department of Foreign Economic Activity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. — Currently, the organization has 164 members.

As Konstantin Cherny, Deputy Chairman of the Economics Committee of the Regional Executive Committee, noted at the event, entities in the Vitebsk region need to start preparing for operating in the new conditions today. First and foremost, this applies to organizations in the agro-industrial complex, which are the backbone of the economy, and enterprises engaged in machine tool, instrument, and mechanical engineering, as the Vitebsk region has been considered an assembly shop since the USSR times. The light industry should not be left behind either.

According to Konstantin Eduardovich, even after joining the WTO, a great deal of work awaits us, as our enterprises are not fully prepared for the new rules of the game: reforms in economic activities, transition to an international system of accounting, hiring, taxation, reporting, and much more are needed.

"Vitebskiye Vesti".