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fulfillment of obligations in 2018. By the end of 2017, Belarus' foreign currency reserves amounted to $7.3bn.
The Belarusian government is going to secure $500mn per year from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the nation's Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko told EBRD delegation headed by its vice president Alain Pilloux on 4 June. "I think both sides should be satisfied with the fact that the volume of EBRD operations has been on the rise in Belarus in the last few years," BELTA news agency quoted Semashko as saying. "There is obvious dynamics. In 2017 we saw an increase of nearly 31% to €163mn. This year we've been seeing roughly the same pace and expect €250 million... We should think about ways to reach €0.5 billion and more than that." In 2015, the EBRD adopted a new four-year cooperative strategy for Belarus, which provides an opportunity for enhanced engagement with the Belarusian authorities. In 2011, the lender revised its approach to Belarus after the disputed 2010 presidential election, concentrating on developing the private sector and not giving financial or technical support to the central authorities. Since the start of its operations in Belarus in 1992, the EBRD has invested more than €1.9bn in some 90 projects in various sectors of the country's economy.
The Belarusian authorities are going to offer shares of eight state-owned companies for sale on the Belarusian Currency and Stock Exchange (BCSE), according to first deputy chairman of the State Property Committee (SPC) Aleksei Vasilyev. "We've reached the stock exchange. We offered shares of five companies in the past. One package of shares was sold," state news agency BELTA quoted the official as saying. "Unfortunately, there are certain restrictions, which prevent municipal companies from trading via the stock exchange." Vasilyev added that the SPC has taken "certain steps" to adjust the legislation. "The amendments have been submitted to the government. I think they will be enacted soon. We've come up with an initiative to offer [shares of] another eight companies on the stock exchange. It is quite a serious project," he added. bne IntelliNews does not consider the statement serious as privatisation in Belarus stalled in 2011 and was put on hold by the country's authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. For years, Minsk has avoided privatising its major companies, the only significant exception being the sale of its gas pipeline system under Russian political pressure to Gazprom for $5bn in 2007-2011. The Belarusian authorities were unable to agree any significant privatisation deals due to high assets price, and some social and production conditions set by the authorities that made the project unprofitable and inefficient.
19 BELARUS Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com