Belarus may make it among top 30 business friendly countries next year

Belarus may make it among the top 30 business friendly countries as early as 2011, Deputy Economy Minister Aleh Melnikaw said in an interview with BelaPAN on Tuesday.

A series of measures concerning taxation regulations and the liquidation of companies has been drawn up to fulfill the goal, the deputy minister said.

The amendments introduced recently to the law governing economic entities are expected to bolster the efforts, he said. “When working on the legislation, we cooperated closely with experts of the World Bank,” Mr. Melnikaw noted. “The document takes into account many recommendations issued by the WB.”

Currently, there are more than 40,000 corporations in Belarus.

The World Bank ranked Belarus 58th in its Doing Business 2010 report, but the country’s government seeks the 48th spot next year.

Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Kabyakow said on July 13 that the government had drawn up a plan of action to improve the country's Doing Business ranking and 23 measures under the 47-item plan had already been carried out. "Twenty-seven draft rules have been drawn up and 15 of them have been adopted in the course of the implementation of the plan. This makes it possible to speak about conducting reforms in five categories of the survey - taxation, lending, international trade, construction permits, business liquidation," he said