There was no and will be no distribution of state property in Belarus - M. Myasnikovich

April 22, Minsk / Olga Belyavskaya - BELTA /. There has been no giveaway of state property in Belarus, and there will be none. This was stated today at a meeting of the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, according to a BELTA correspondent. "If we are talking about privatization, then ours is paid, privatization on a competitive basis, for money," the Prime Minister emphasized. "If a state or communal object or its part is sold, these funds should not be dissolved into current consumption, but directed to the creation of new state and communal property objects." The Prime Minister noted that some people often talk about the giveaway of state property in Belarus. Mikhail Myasnikovich considers such conversations unfounded. "There has been no giveaway of state property in Belarus, and there will be none," he said. "I have instructed the Chairman of the State Property Committee to consider this issue comprehensively with the regional executive committees." The head of government expressed concern about the work on attracting foreign direct investment in the Vitebsk region, and also emphasized that there is no clarity in this work in the Brest, Gomel regional executive committees and Minsk. "The issues of inconsistency between the regional and sectoral levels were raised again by a number of regional leaders," Mikhail Myasnikovich noted. "I consider this to be a certain helplessness of the Ministry of Economy and the economic committees of the respective regional executive committees." According to the Prime Minister, all these issues should have been agreed upon last year. Mikhail Myasnikovich drew attention to the fact that the work on attracting foreign direct investment carried out by light industry enterprises also causes extreme concern. "Investments have decreased by almost half, there are practically no foreign sources and none are in sight," he stated. A similar situation has developed at the enterprises of the Belbiofarm concern. They have been given small, "even tiny" targets for attracting foreign investment, but even these volumes are not being met. "Energy construction sites are in a very difficult situation, with about a third of the real funding sources missing for this year's planned volumes," the Prime Minister emphasized. In the current situation, he demanded an open discussion of these issues from the ministries, primarily the Ministry of Economy. "This should be an open conversation, not lamentations that something has not been achieved," he said, while noting that the proposals should be specific. Analyzing the development of investment activities in Belarus, Mikhail Myasnikovich added that one should not forget that a new version of the investment code is currently being prepared. The head of government criticized the pace of document development, emphasizing that it is extremely slow. "All conceivable and inconceivable deadlines have been missed, and a similar situation exists with the strategy for attracting foreign direct investment," he added. The Prime Minister emphasized that the share of investments in machinery and equipment in the structure of the investment portfolio has increased very slightly – to 38%, while the task was set for this indicator to exceed 50%. -0-