Construction of enterprises of Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park to begin in 2014

MINSK, 30 August (BelTA) – The construction of enterprises in the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park will begin in 2014, BelTA learned from Andrei Gubkin, Head of the Foreign Economic Ties Office of the Economy Committee of the Minsk Oblast Executive Committee.

Step-by-step design of thoroughfares, transport and engineering infrastructures is in progress. “The construction of manufacturing facilities in the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park will begin next year. It is a very large land plot, which development will take years and will be done by stages,” said the official.

On 30 August Chairman of the Minsk Oblast Executive Committee Boris Batura met with Chinese reporters, who had arrived in Belarus as part of the large-scale project “Understanding China via the new Silk Road – an international media tour”. The project is designed to promote economic, trade, and cultural cooperation between Chongqing Province and the countries, which the transcontinental railroad Chongqing - Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region – Europe crosses.

Speaking about Minsk Oblast’s cooperation with China, the Minsk Oblast Governor remarked that the construction of the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park is the largest joint project. “Next year the preparation of sites for future manufacturing facilities will begin. About 15 companies are already willing to reside and work in the industrial park. Those will be mainly manufacturing facilities specializing in electronics, precise machinery, pharmaceutics,” he said.

The Chinese-Belarusian management company to develop the industrial park was established by the Chinese engineering company CAMCE (60% of the shares), the Minsk Oblast administration (30%), and OAO Horizont Holding Management Company (10%) on 28 August 2012.

The Chinese shareholder has prepared a concept of the general layout of the park. Upon request of the joint management company the concept has been adapted to Belarusian legislation. The general layout was approved by the relevant resolution of the Council of Ministers of Belarus on 4 June 2013. The general layout envisages the first stage of the park’s construction that comprises two sites: the northern one (887ha for industrial and logistics purposes) and the southern one (234ha for administrative and residential buildings).

To attract more investors a website has been launched, a promo video has been prepared, leaflets in English, Russian, and Chinese have been printed, and presentations are held in Belarus, China, and other countries.

The Head of the Foreign Economic Ties Office of the Economy Committee of the Minsk Oblast Executive Committee told Chinese reporters that the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park had been granted considerable tax preferences and its location is not accidental. “Two trans-European transport automobile corridors cross the park, there is a railway and an airport nearby. Minsk with its highly qualified engineering personnel is not so far as well as Zhodino, a major mechanical engineering center,” he said.