SMEs development strategy till 2030 to be developed in Belarus within a year

MINSК (BelTA) – The strategy to develop small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) till 2030 will be developed in Belarus within a year, Deputy Economy Minister Irina Kostevich said during a round table meeting on 22 April, BelTA has learned.

“The National Strategy of Sustainable Social and Economic Development for the period till 2020 has been passed in Belarus. It reads that small and medium-sized enterprises should account for 50% of the GDP. This is an ambitious goal indeed, but we must do our best to reach it and understand what the country and the business sector need to do to accomplish the goal. As far as the Belarusian SMEs development strategy till 2030 is concerned, it has to be developed in 2017,” Irina Kostevich said.

The deputy economy minister remarked that the strategy prepared with the participation of all interested parties will be submitted to the government in mid-2017. “Certain steps in the preparation of the document have been already made, we understand what issues the business sector has to deal with now, and what difficulties can emerge by 2020. However, even today we must understand what the business sector will be like in 2030 and determine the development vector,” she noted.

According to Irina Kostevich, plans have been made to set up about 48,000 small enterprises by the end of 2020. “By the end of 2020, people employed in SMEs should account for 35% of the workforce, at present this figure stays at 31%, i.e. it is needed to increase the number of people employed in the small and medium-sized business sector by about 100,000 people. We understand what we have to do to achieve this goal: it is needed to provide financial assistance, set up a guarantee fund, and step up efforts in other fields,” the deputy economy minister said.

The round table to discuss the development of SMEs till 2030 has been organized by the Belarusian Entrepreneurship Development Council and the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations.