The World Bank will extend a $100-150mn loan to Belarus for the energy project, Pekka Salminen, WB Senior Energy Specialist, told a news briefing in Minsk on April 15. According to him, a group of WB experts are in Belarus to discuss the new loan agreement. Another visit of the WB mission is scheduled for June 2008. The loan negotiations can take place in December 2008. The loan can be endorsed by the WB Board of Directors at the beginning of 2009. Approximately in a year this money will...

The entrepreneurship department of the Belarusian Economy Ministry and the Polish Agency for Business Development have signed an agreement on cooperation in small and middle-sized businesses. The document has been signed in Warsaw during the first session of the joint Belarusian-Polish Commission for Economic Cooperation, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Belarusian Economy Ministry. The Polish side has been proposed the draft plan of the measures dealing with the implementation...

Belarusian Olga Kravtsova, Olga Minina and Anastasia Podolinskaya won a team gold at the 12th European Cup 10,000m in Istanbul, Turkey. In individual competitions Olga Kravtsova finished in 7th (32 minutes 43,28 seconds), Olga Minina 8th (32 minute 58,36 seconds), Anastasia Podolinskaya 18th (34 minutes 59,63 seconds). In the men’s event Stean Rogovtsov placed in 8th (29 minutes 14,22 seconds).

Belarus will host the European Weightlifting Championships in 2010. The decision was taken unanimously at the congress of the European Weightlifting Federation in Italy. The tournament will be staged in the Palace of Sport or the multifunctional arena “Minsk-Arena” if its construction is completed by then. The plans also feature the construction of a sports hall which, if ready by 2010, will be able to host the tournament too. Belarus has gained experience of staging international...

Six milk whey processing plants will be set up in Belarus in 2008-2009, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky told reporters on April 11 during his visit to the Gomel oblast. The cost of the project will make up Br130 billion. This issue will be discussed at the forthcoming session of the Government, the Prime Minister noted. Launching these plants Belarus will create a non-waste milk processing technology. Moreover, the terms of modernization of the Belarusian dairy branch will be...

Belarus’ gold reserves are around 30 tonnes, Deputy Finance Minister of Belarus Ivan Zayash told reported on April 10. “The gold and foreign currency reserves of Belarus are worth more than $5.5 billion, with gold making up around 30 tonnes,” he said. Ivan Zayash also said that the gold and foreign currency reserves of Belarus have been growing. “When the country started forming the reserves in 1992-1993, gold accounted for as little as 30 kg,” he said. Ivan Zayash also said...

Belarusian medicine should handle cutting-edge tasks, said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on April 10 as he met with the doctors who had performed Belarus’ first liver transplantation. According to the President, with this in mind the establishment of the national scientific practical centre for transplantology at premises of Minsk’s clinic hospital No 9 should be expedited. “If we don’t open it soon, we may be late and will never catch up. If people can operate at such a...

Starting H2 2008 Belarusian Oil Company will be the sole exporter of Belarusian oil products, the company’s Director General Vladimir Zubkov told media on April 10. He noted, the company had been tasked with consolidating the export of Belarusian oil products. In Q1 2008 the company accounted for up to 80% of the export of Belarusian oil products. “The figure is expected to reach 100% starting H2 2008,” said Vladimir Zubkov. He said, in order to export oil products the company uses...

The 6th session of the inter-parliamentary commission for interregional cooperation of the Council of Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus and the Council of Federation of the Russian Federal Assembly will be held in Gomel on April 10-11, BelTA learnt in the press service of the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee. Participants of the session are set to consider the issues relating to strengthening of the payment relations between economic entities of Belarus and Russia and also...

For the first time in the past twenty years the urban death rate in Belarus did not exceed the birthrate for the three months 2008, Deputy Health Minister of Belarus Viktor Rudenko said at a meeting of the permanent seminar a the Belarus-Russia Union State PA “Medicine and longevity in the Union State”. According to the deputy minister, it is not by accident that the topic of today’s hearings is demographic security, the most important problem of the Union State. To resolve the problem...