OREANDA-NEWS. October 9, 2009. The certification of the environmental management systems has been carried out by the biggest and the most up-to-date organizations of the region including the Mozyr Refinery, Gomelstroimaterialy, Gomelobldorstroi and others.

At the same time, the environmental management systems are being introduced very slowly in the region because of the high costs for the technical renovation and modernization of production facilities, construction of sewage disposal plants, introduction of innovation technologies. Nevertheless, the introduction of the ISO 14000 environmental management standards allows the companies to reduce costs for energy and material resources, improve quality and competitiveness of the produced products and services. The issues related to the quality and eco-security are too important for the Gomel oblast which exports about 75% of the total products.

The Gomel oblast is one of the most developing regions of Belarus. There are more than 300 big and middle-sized industrial companies in the Gomel oblast. In 2008, the region produced consumable goods at the amount of more than \\$10 billion. The leading branches of the economy are the fuel, chemical, metallurgical, woodworking, cellulose and paper industries.