OREANDA-NEWS. March 04, 2010. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has severely criticized the efforts put by the government into attracting foreign investments into the country. Alexander Lukashenko made the relevant statement as he heard out a government report on this matter on 4 March.

“I have to admit that the situation around attracting foreign direct investments to the Belarusian economy cannot inspire optimism,” stressed the head of state. He also added that gross figures are useless.

Statistics says that since 2008 the FDI received by Belarus’ real economy has been steadily shrinking. In 2009 FDI totaled a mere \\$420 million, 38% down on 2008. The President said the fall cannot be explained by the general decline of investment activity across the globe. “The lack of responsibility, unwillingness and inaptitude of some officials to work effectively are some of the reasons behind the situation,” believes the head of state.

“The conclusion comes up after seeing the rising number of applications sent by potential foreign investors directly to the President. It looks like they no longer believe that those in charge of dealing with these matters can do it,” said Alexander Lukashenko.

“It is not the first time I reproach top ranking officials for the lack of action. The government has assured me that they will keep an eye on the most important investment projects. And there are a lot of them,” the head of state reminded. Alexander Lukashenko said that he has to read reports that specify Culture Minister Vladimir Matveichuk as the one responsible for an investment project. “It means that either you copy old papers and push them off to me or that the papers are compiled by incompetent people. What can I say about the cooperation of the government, oblast administrations and Minsk City Hall with foreign investors? Certainly it is dissatisfactory,” said the head of state.

Alexander Lukashenko spoke against turning the present report into yet another compilation of assurances. The President said he would like to have a true assessment of the cooperation with foreign investors.

The President made it clear that there is only one way to cooperate with investors: “If someone comes to Belarus to work and offers his own money to invest in our economy, he should be given the green light. The investor should be made familiar with what taxes he will have to pay and with what preferences we can provide for his project”. According to Alexander Lukashenko, when a potential investor “understands it clearly and sees that we welcome him here instead of counting his money or making up additional conditions, then the investor will work”.