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Lukashenka plays up Belarus’ investment climate

 

Alyaksandr Lukashenka on Saturday described Belarus’ investment climate as “ideal.”

“We will do nothing more to make Belarus more attractive to foreign investors and we hardly need to do anything,” he said while talking to reporters during a visit to Belarusian State University.

“We have created ideal conditions for investors. It is not even taxes and other issues that matters most today. What matters most is peace, stability in the country, the possibility to invest money and do business.”

Mr. Lukashenka warned of disadvantages of foreign investments. “They have invested money, used our land, resources, especially labor, paid us something and brought out the entire profit,” the government's news agency BelTA quoted him as saying.

According to Mr. Lukashenka, Belarus has struggled to cope with the current volume of foreign and domestic investment. “We lack construction workers and other professionals to put all this to use,” he was quoted as saying.

He suggested that the government should not rush to “give everything to foreigners” and should prioritize domestic and Russian investors. “I mean decent Russians. Indecent will simply not come here. They know my attitude toward this, my policy. And there are enough decent ones,” he said.

“I want our citizens who have money, our enterprises, the state to invest in the first place, while foreigners should take a back seat,” he said. “When a foreigner comes, he picks the tidbits from this pie.” // BelaPAN