The United Nations Organization intends to continue implementation of the joint projects with Belarus in the sphere of fight against crime, Mr Antonio Maria Costa, UN Deputy Secretary General, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the United Nations Office in Vienna noted after his meeting with Belarusian Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov in Minsk on May 27. According to him, the programme of the cooperation of the Belarusian...

The CIS Council of the Heads of Government made decisions on all the 20 issues of the agenda of the session which finished in Minsk on May 23, Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth Sergei Lebedev told a press conference dedicated to the results of the session. According to him, these issues mainly concerned the economic cooperation. Moreover, participants of the session considered a number of organizational issues. In particular, they adopted the decision regarding the chairmanship in the...

Time has come to take more serious decisions concerning integration in the Commonwealth of Independent States, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said on May 23 at a meeting with Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin. The President of Belarus stressed, there are quite many problems the heads of government of the CIS states will have to resolve. “It is good that their decision follows the instructions issued by the heads of state when you were the President of Russia,” Alexander...

In January-April 2008 Belarus transported 24.1 billion cubic meters of gas, 17.9% up on the same period last year, BelTA learnt from the Ministry of Statistics and Analysis. Over the four months Belarus pumped over 29.4 million tonnes of oil, what makes up 97.7% as against January-April 2007. Gas is transported via Beltransgaz networks and Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. Oil is pumped by Gomeltransneft “Druzhba” and the Novopolotsk Oil Transportation Company “Druzhba”.

In 2009 earnings of Belarusian Potash Company will make at least $5 billion, First Vice Premier of Belarus Vladimir Semashko told media commenting on results of the government session held by the President of Belarus on May 22 to discuss the BPC operation. Vladimir Semashko remarked, after uniting efforts of two shareholders (Belaruskali and Uralkali) Belarusian Potash Company managed to raise the average price for potash fertilisers from $150 to $650 per tonne. One of these days the BPC...

The amount of investments in Belarus has tripled over the past decade which attests to the confident economic development of the country, Deputy Economy Minister of Belarus Piotr Zhabko stated at the 5th Gomel Investment Forum 2008. According to him, the government attaches great attention to attracting foreign investment in various sectors of the national economy. For example, more than 150 investment projects with participation of foreign capital are implemented in the country in 2008....

When asked about the measures which the government has been taking to regulate the inflation, Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov said that Belarus will not create a price “oasis”. In January-April, consumer prices in Belarus upped by 5.3%. In 2008 the inflation is projected at the level of 6-8%. It is obvious that the country will not manage to meet this target. “We cannot sit by and observe what is going on around us,” Andrei Kobyakov said. “If we create a price...

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will assign $800,000 to help Belarus conduct a census, the chief of the international organisations department of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus, Vasily Kurlovich, told reporters on May 21. According to him, the most efficient projects in the future will be the UNDP projects involving Belarus. “In the near future Belarus will become a UNDP donor-country. Therefore, most promising will be those projects which involve several countries, i.e. the...

In Q1 the volume of foreign investment in Belarus doubled to total $2.1 billion. Of them $617 million were direct investment, the chief of the department of international investment cooperation and free economic zones of the Economy Ministry, Vladislav Zolin, told reporters on May 20. According to him, the number of foreign companies investing in Belarusian projects has considerably grown. In 2003 there were 2,667 companies with foreign investment. As of January 1, 2008 there were 4,218 of...

Belarusian-Venezuelan joint venture Petrolera BeloVenesolana plans to extract around 900,000 tonnes of oil in 2008, Belneftekhim’s Deputy Chairman Mikhail Osipenko told media on May 20. In future by 2010 the figure is supposed to rise up to 2 million tonnes of oil, he added. Belarus does not believe it is necessary to transport Venezuelan oil to Belarus. All the extracted oil is sold on the international market. “Why is it necessary to bring it to Belarus if it can be sold on the spot...