OREANDA-NEWS. August 06, 2008. The Economy Ministry of Belarus projects that foreign direct investments in Belarus will have amounted to USD2.1 billion in 2008, the chief economist of the department for international investment cooperation and free economic zones of the Belarusian Economy Ministry, Vasily Nekrashevich, told journalists.

Foreign direct investments in H1 2008 came to USD 1.2 billion (USD 299 million in 2002), he said.

The growth in investments is fuelled by increasing number of the companies set up with participation of foreign capital. Today their number exceeds 4,000 and increase by 500-600 annually.

Foreign investments will increase further as Belarus adopts several regulatory documents aimed at introducing new schemes of cooperation with investors (investment, venture and pension funds, project financing, etc). The work on these regulatory documents is underway.