NAIP: the development of the investment potential of Belarus should attract of investors and increase the efficiency and competitiveness of our agriculture

This was stated in an interview of the Deputy Head of the Investor Support Department of the National Investment Agency and privatization Vitaly Zholnerovich published on March 5, 2022 in the Respublika newspaper about promising areas of investment cooperation with Belarus in the field of agriculture and specific examples of successful projects with foreign capital already implemented in our country.

According to the NAIP representative, Belarus has many advantages in terms of investing in the agro-industrial complex.

“First, the geographical location. Our country is located between two large sales markets - the EU and the EAEU. For many investors, the opportunity to diversify sales markets is fundamental, even if their key goal is to ensure the food security of their own countries. Nevertheless, they always want to profitably sell products in other regions, if the market conditions are favorable or the prices there are higher than at home.

Secondly, Belarus has good transport links with China - a container arrives in 12-14 days by railway. Accordingly, agricultural companies have the opportunity both to receive equipment, raw materials, materials from the Asian market, and to sell products to China. By the way, we have made a breakthrough with China over the past three years in the supply of meat and dairy products.

Thirdly, Belarus has a developed agriculture: there are specialists, technologies, scientific and educational bases, and deep international relations. We have developed agricultural engineering, the country is almost completely self-sufficient in mineral fertilizers.

Fourthly, the threshold for entering the agricultural business in Belarus is low by international standards. At the same time, we have quite productive agricultural land and relatively good climatic conditions,” said Vitaly Zholnerovich.

At the same time, as the deputy head of the NAIP Investor Support Department emphasized, it is important to raise the profile of Belarus as a promising platform for implementing projects in the field of agriculture and the food industry.

“First of all, this concerns the countries of the far arc. For them, we are more familiar with engineering products, but not with agriculture. And now the agency's efforts are focused on presenting our country’s high agricultural potential.

The second point that raises doubts among investors is the state ownership of agricultural land. Almost all investors ask: under what conditions can one acquire land as a property? They have to explain that we have private agricultural companies that lease land from the state under a contract for 99 years. That such a management principle does not carry any risks, since if an enterprise fulfills all the conditions of the contract and complies with the law, then no one will ever take the leased land from it, such precedents are unknown to the agency. However, many investors are accustomed to working with private land ownership. It cannot be said that this issue is completely critical for everyone, but it requires additional clarification,” Vitaly Zholnerovich stated.

At the end of the conversation, the representative of the agency expressed his conviction that Belarus has a very significant investment potential. But it needs to be developed in order to attract investors and increase the efficiency and competitiveness of our agriculture.