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Cabinet approves privatization plan for state-owned enterprises

The Belarusian Council of Ministers has approved a 2008-2010 plan for the privatization of the country’s state-owned industrial and other enterprises, said BelaPAN.

A total of 519 state enterprises are to be privatized in Belarus in the period, according to the cabinet’s directive.

The government plans to privatize 176 enterprises, including the Minsk Engine Plant, the Minskahraprammash agricultural machinery manufacturer and the Vavilov Minsk Mechanical Plant, in 2008.

More than 200 enterprises are expected to be sold into private hands next year. These include the Homselmash farm machinery maker, the Zhodzina-based BelAZ dump truck manufacturer, the Minsk Wheeled Tractor Plant, the Vitsyaz television maker in Vitsyebsk and the Druzhba oil pipeline operator.

As many as 130 enterprises are to be privatized in 2010.

The government directive includes a 147-item list of stock companies stakes in which are to be sold to private investors between 2008 and 2010. Shares in the companies are to be sold in accordance with Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s decree issued this past April. The decree allows holders to trade in shares of companies in which the government either holds 75 percent and more or holds no stake at all starting July 17, 2008.

Under the decree, transactions involving shares of companies in which the government holds 50 percent and more are to be permitted after January 1, 2009.

However, trade in shares of companies that are key to the “functioning of strategically important industries” will not be allowed until January 1, 2011 when all restrictions are to be removed.