OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2011. The State Border Committee of Belarus suggests attracting investors in international border-crossing points by enabling them to open duty-free shops, Committee Chief Igor Rachkovsky said during an online conference on Thursday.

“We have 33 points of simplified crossing that we have to develop apart from standard crossing points. We have much work to do, and financing from the state budget will be hard.”

He suggested attracting investors in projects to develop border-crossing points by enabling them to run duty-free shops. Investors will have to take part in the development of infrastructure, especially at simplified crossing stations.

Rachkovsky did not say how many duty-free shops Belarus needed, however, he said there was a norm on duty-free shops in the Customs Code, and sooner or later, Belarus would have to get back to them.

A duty-free shop in Belarus may only be opened by an open joint-stock company with a state stake exceeding 25% or any other organization with a state stake in excess of 50%.