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Perspektyva association appeals to Lukashenka over licensing requirement for small traders

Perspektyva, a small business association, has sent an appeal to Alyaksandr Lukashenka over the licensing requirement for small traders.

In the appeal, Perspektyva says that senior government officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Kabyakow and Deputy Economy Minister Andrey Tur, promised last year that the requirement would be scrapped, but work on a regulation to this effect seems to have been suspended.

Perspektyva Chairman Anatol Shumchanka told BelaPAN that the association just wanted to draw the Belarusian leader’s attention to the problem. “Given the hierarchy of the government, appealing to the head of state rather than the chiefs of the appropriate ministries is, probably, more efficient,” Mr. Shumchanka said.

“We just want to recall what government officials said,” he noted. “There were a lot of bold statements that the license would be abolished as part of the economic liberalization reform, but the matter is not raised any more for some reason.”

“Small traders have had big expectations and they now ask us when the authorities will fulfill their promise,” Mr. Shumchanka said.

In the appeal, Perspektyva says that an overwhelming majority of small businesses operate in the retail sector. Some 3,300 stores owned by sole entrepreneurs, or 40 percent of the total amount, closed down and the number of retail units intended for sole entrepreneurs at shopping centers and markets dropped by 34,600 between 2007 and 2009, Perspektyva says, stressing that difficulties associated with the licensing procedure are among the key factors behind the trend. //BelaPAN