Page 29 - BELRptJuly18

December, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree that set up the regulatory and legislative basis of transactions in crypto-currencies, making Belarus one of the first CIS countries to formally embrace the idea. The document is designed to attract digital coin entrepreneurs, who are moving businesses to locations more welcoming to crypto-currencies. The decree legalises initial coin offerings and transactions in crypto-currencies, including their exchange for traditional currencies on Belarusian exchanges, while all trades will be tax-free for the next five years. It also allows local IT companies to operate in part under English law - a boon to potential foreign investors, who can struggle to navigate the Belarusian legal system, according to Reuters. At the same time, Minsk-based independent experts point that the decree and other liberal steps of the Belarusian government fail to secure any significant benefits the nation's economy due to remaining tough capital controls and other Soviet-style restrictions. The Hi-Tech Park in Minsk is now home to 293 resident companies.
The Belarusian government expects that the annual growth of the Belarusian IT industry, transport industry, and logistics industry will reach 7%-10%, the nation's First Deputy Economy Minister Dmitry Krutoi said in a televised interview. At the same time, Minsk hopes to boost economic growth to "above the world average growth rate", which "makes up some 3.9% per annum but in 2021-2025 we need growth as high as 6%-7% so that we could hit a GDP value of at least $100bn by the end of 2025," government news agency BELTA quoted Krutoi as saying on June 25. Krutoi remarked that the medium-term development program for the period till 2020 expects the GDP and the real monetary income of the population to grow by a total of about 12-15% within five years. According to official data , the nation's GDP grew by 4.7% year-on-year in January-May, following 4.8% y/y growth in January-April and a 5.1% y/y growth in January-March. The economy is recovering mainly thanks to the ongoing recovery in neighbouring Russia, the country's main trade partner. Belarus' GDP grew by 2.4% y/y in 2017 after two years of recession. It contracted 3.9% y/y in 2015 following 1.6% y/y growth in 2014. In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised upwards its GDP growth forecast for Belarus from 0.7% (October's forecast) y/y to 2.8% y/y.
9.1.10 Utilities sector news
By the end of 2019, the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Ostrovets, Belarus is scheduled to be completed . The construction of the plant has both local residents and neighboring Lithuania (as the site is less than 50 km from Vilnius) up in arms. The Lithuanian foreign ministry has called on the contractors of the project to take nuclear safety issues seriously and to comply with international obligations, including recommendations from the stress tests report recently submitted to the European Nuclear Safety Regulatory Group.
29 BELARUS Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com