Belarus in BriefTerritory - 207 600 sq. km (ranked 86 in the world)Population – 9.67 million (ranked 79 in the world)Workforce – 4.5 millionLiteracy - 99.6%Capital – Minsk (1.81million)Regional centres: Gomel (480 000), Mogilev (390 000), Vitebsk (360 000), Grodno (320 000), Brest (300 000)•Natural resources: More than 4,000 deposits and fields of mineral resources, agricultural lands cover more than 43.9 percent of the territory, forests cover 37.6 percent of the territory, over 20,800 rivers and about 11,000 lakes, mineral watersTotal GDP - US$ 59.9 billionReal GDP growth rate – 10%; GDP per capita ($) - 6192Inflation rate – 14.8%Exports – US$ 34.1 billionImports – US$ 40 billionFDI inflow (2007, % of GDP) - 3.96Gross Foreign Debt (% of GDP) - 28.4Moody’s Rating - B1State languages – Belarusian and Russian

Advantageous geographical location and a well developed transport infrastructure: Eastern boundary of the European Union; a well developed system of highways and railways; two corridors of trans-European transport network - a direct way to Berlin (1060 km), Warsaw (550 km), Moscow (700 km), Vilnius (215 km) and Kiev (580 km); seven airports.

Highly skilled manpower which has accumulated experience of work at modern enterprises. Belarus is recognised by UN experts as a country with the best human development index among CIS countries. 46 % of labour force of the country has higher and specialised secondary education.

Highly developed industrial, scientific, technical potential. 30 percent of world outputs of heavy haulers, 15 percent of mineral fertilizers, 6 percent of tractors; export of goods to more than 140 countries; well developed mobile telephone communication, high-speed Internet; 56 higher education institutes, 204 institutions of specialised secondary education; research and development potential.

Belarus – an attractive and profitable place to invest: market advantages

Invest Belarus – smart thinking Political, social and economical stability Stable internal political situation, low crime and corruption rate, absence of international or religious conflicts

Favorable investment climate

– Well developed investment legislation

– Favorable investment conditions to foreign investor

– Guaranteed right of unimpeded transfer of profit received from investments in the country

– Availability of international agreements regarding the avoidance of double taxation (concluded with 52 countries)

– Belarus entered the list of ten countries-regulatory reforms (according to Doing Business 2009, the sixth annual report published by the World Bank and IFC)

Belarus' major investors 2002-2008

Others; 14%

Netherlands; 3%

Germany; 8% Cyprus; 6%

Russia; 23%

Austria 9%

Switzerland 17%

Great Britain; 19%

Multi-stakeholder Partnership Projects, brokered by UNDP:

Telemedicine development project

The overall objective: Improve public access to quality medical services in remote communities through development of telemedicine.

Immediate project objective: Better medical services related to cardiology through the development of ECG telesystems in small towns and rural centres.

Partners: Mobile TeleSystems, UNDP, Ministry of Health, Belarusian Centre for Medical Technologies.

The role of UNDP:- the idea of the project was proposed - foreign experience on telemedicine was introduced- dialogue between potential partners has been

organized- advocacy and publicity for the project is provided

Project “Support for Establishing a Guarantee Fund in the Republic of Belarus”

Main objective of the project: to support the creation of a guarantee fund in Belarus by establishing a partnership among respective government institutions, commercial banks, international donor agencies and Belarusian small and medium-sized business, as well as elaboration of a guarantee fund investment proposal to attract domestic and international investments to the guarantee capital

Partners: Belarusian Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers; Belgazprombank; Department of Entrepreneurship of the Ministry of Economy.

Role of UNDP:• a long-term partnership among prospective founders of a guarantee fund through

organizing a corresponding working group was established • the GF international expert mission in Minsk was arranged and meetings with

potential partners (commercial banks, government) and other agencies were organized• investment proposal “Minsk Guarantee сompany for Small and Medium

Enterprises” was prepared and posted on web site: http://www.export.by/en/?act=s_docs&mode=view&id=1514&doc=66•work at involving investors and the international organizations concerned to

become founders of the Guarantee Fund is in progress.

Agriculture

Key highlights At present Belarus is a leading agricultural

producer in the CIS countries. Belarus is fully self-sufficient in agricultural

production: domestic agricultural products manufacturing almost fully meets internal demand.

In 2008 gross agricultural output in Belarus reached 5.8 bln. EUR, which is by 4.4% more in real terms compared to 2007 and made 8,4% of the GDP

Projects1. Construction of an oil crops processing and mill-cakes and oil manufacturing units and of

mill-cakes and oil at Slutsk Grain Products Plant OJSC (Investments – 6,5 mln. EUR)

2. Complex for cleaning crop seeds (cereals – 10 000 tons, perennial grasses – 10 000 tons, vegetables – 200 tons) (Investments – 3 mln.EUR)

3. Construction of dairy farms in Vitebsk region

In 2007 total livestock of cattle in the Republic amounted to 4.01 mln. heads, including 1.5 mln. heads of mother cows.

Belarus is a leading producer of potatoes. Per capita production of potatoes in 2007 amounted to 900 kilos;

Dynamics of agricultural output in Belarus (official estimations), bln. euro

2,72,8 2,9

3,94,7

5,35,8+1,8%

+0,7%

+6,6%

+12,6%

+1,7%

+6,0%+4,4%

0,0

1,0

2,0

3,0

4,0

5,0

6,0

7,0

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

-0,2

-0,15

-0,1

-0,05

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

Agricultural output in Belarus, bln.euro Real growth rate,%

Construction Key highlights

There were 5.1 mln sq. m of housing built in the Republic of Belarus in 2008, which is by 9.3% more than in 2007.

It is planned that capital investments into the construction industry development will amount to 845 million EUR in 2006-2010. In 2007 229.8 million EUR were invested into the industry’s development.

The Belarusian commercial estate market is one of the fastest growing segments of the economy.

Building materials market capacity was growing in 2003-2008 by 12.5% per annum and made 4.1% of the aggregated Belarusian industrial production.

Projects1. Technical modernization of the drawing shop and the wire and cable manufacturing shop at

JSC «Shchuchin plant «Autoprovod» (Investments – 1,95 mln. EUR)

2. Foundation of a modern plant producing high quality building materials on the basis of a magnesia astringent for a low rise-houses construction (Investments – 7,7 mln.EUR)

3. Transformation of the «Agros» company to the «Plastbau» factory producing building designs under the license of «Plastedil International Ltd» (Investments - 4,6 mln.EUR)

4. Production of thermal insulating materials using short flax-fiber at the free production spaces of the unitary enterprise «Groniteks» (Investments - 4,7 mln.EUR)

FoodKey highlights

Belarusian food industry production in 2008 was about 5.45 bln. EUR and demonstrated a stable growth about 8,7%.

The main sectors of the Belarusian food industry are the following: diary, meat, confectionery, soft drinks, alcohol, fruit and vegetables processing.

Belarusian meat and meat products market is a growing, non-mature and highly fragmented market. In 2007 market size reached 1.7 bln.EUR.

The Republic of Belarus is a fully self-sufficient country in terms of milk and milk products production. In 2007 the aggregated Belarusian whole milk products, cheese and butter market size 1.45 bln.EUR.

There are 21 confectionery producers in the Republic of Belarus. In 2007 total production of confectionery in Belarus reached 127.2 thous.tonnes.

The Belarusian beer market in 2008 was estimated at 300-400 mln.EUR or 47.2 mln.decalitres, which is by 5% higher than in 2007.

In 2008 the aggregated size of the Belarusian soft drinks market reached 292 mln.EUR, which is by 27% more than in 2007.

Projects1. Reconstruction of the confectionary production capacities at JSC “Krasnyi

Mozyrianin”(Investments – 7,0 mln.EUR

2. Reconstruction of a citric acid production at JSC “Skidel Sugar Refinery” (Direct investments - 4,6 mln.EUR) . The project purpose was a citric acid production capacities reconstruction with a new resource-saving technologies introduction, which will increase modern capacities by 2 000 metric tons.

TourismKey highlights

More than 120 thous tourists visited Belarus in 2008. 1,4 mln. transit tourists visited Belarus

In Belarus there are 282 hotels (21 of them are certified by stars 3-5*).

More than 500 tourist operators work in Belarus

Two architectural monuments are inscribed on UNESCO's list of the World Heritage:

– The Castle Complex ”Mir“ in the village of Mir (Grodno region)

– The Palace and Park Ensemble in the town of Nyasvizh (Minsk region)

ProjectTourist complex «The Star of the East» (Investments – 4,5 mln.EUR)

The objective of the present project is to construct a tourist complex including: -3* hotel; -10 wooden houses; -entertainment facilities (restaurant, indoor water park, bowling, casino, billiard, tennis courts sauna, spa, mud bath facility, skiing hill with a cable railway).

EnvironmentKey highlightsBelarus is also often called the land of lakes (there are 20,000 of lakes) .

There are 4 national parks (Belovezhskaya Pushcha is of international importance); 97 natural reserves, with 7 of them being of international importance.

The forests cover the 1/3 of the territory of the country.

8% of the Belarusian territory is covered by bogs (1,7 mln.hectares). Now in Bealrus the project of UNDP/GEF “Renaturalization and Sustainable Management of Peatlands in Belarus to Combat Land Degradation, Ensure Conservation of Globally Valuable Biodiversity, and Mitigate Climate Change” is under effectuation.

Projects1. Foundation of modern dolomite recycling plants and production magnesia cement, lime and

astringent gypsum materials using energy-saving technology (Investments – 23,0 mln.EUR)

2. Paper single-use utensils production organization (Investments - 1,2 mln.EUR)

3. Organization of the Modern System for Separate Collection and Processing of Solid Domestic Waste (Investments - 3,9 mln.EUR)

4. Expansion of manufacture of wood fuel granules (pellets) (Investments – 1,6 mln.EUR)

Broad informational support of investors

http://invest.belarus.by - market advantages, where to invest, investment climate, legal framework, key economic branches, successful projects…)

List of the investment projects: http://w3.economy.gov.by/ministry/bip.nsf/alleng.htmlhttp://invest.bspn.by Minsk region: http://invest.bspn.by/content/category/3/8/11/Mogilev region : http://invest.bspn.by/content/category/2/10/10/Brest region : http://brest-region.by/topic.php?tid=3952Vitebsk region : http://www.vitebsk-region.gov.by/ru/business/Gomel region : http://invest.gomel-region.by Grodno region : http://www.region.grodno.by/ru/economic/invest

Agencies (members of GC):http://uniter.by – financial and investment consultatinghttp://vmp.by – legal services for business and foreign investorshttp://p-g.by – marketing, finances, business planningwww.bkc.by – consultanting centre