Republic

MINSK, 23 March (BelTA) - By 2015 Belarus plans to increase exports of goods and services 2.2 times, Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Martynov told reporters, BelTA informs. The draft national export promotion program for 2011-2015 was considered at a session of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers on 23 March. “Our primary goal is to boost exports of goods and services by 2.2 times by 2015,” said Sergei Martynov. According to him, the second most important task is to tackle with the problem of a foreign deficit. The calculations made by experts of the National Academy of Sciences, industry specialists indicate that Belarus can achieve a trade surplus by 2014. “More precisely, by the year 2014 we can balance out the foreign trade and starting from 2015 we can have a surplus of about $500 million,” said the Foreign Minister. He also stressed that that for these figures not to remain on paper but turn into a reality, the country needs to apply a careful approach to the import of goods and services. In this regard, the program envisages the export growth outpacing import growth. “We are set to increase by no more than 1.76 times in the next five years. In this case, the program objectives will be implemented,” said Sergei Martynov. The official stressed that the export promotion program for 2011-2015 has been designed to balance the goals set by different industries to boost the export of goods and services with the country and regional priorities. “Thus, the program will orient the industries which countries and regions to prioritize within the next five years,” he said. The program will be implemented using the following scheme: annual parameters for the annually, when the government approve indicators of socio-economic development for the coming year and set out the figures of exports and trade balance, each branch will prepare a plan of action based on these indicators. These action plans will be under control of the Belarusian Vice Premiers. In general, the program envisages development of new export-oriented manufactures, increasing the currency inflow, raising FDI in production modernization, enhancing the export potential of the national economy, increasing the share of high-technology products with higher value added, commodities and geographical export diversification, others. The program is meant for improving the export potential of the national economy through enhanced competitive ability on the foreign markets, qualitative strengthening of the commodity and geographical structure of the export, reaching a sustainable surplus in foreign trade. According to the program, the growth of the export of goods is projected at the level of 208%, that of services – 303% in 2015 as against 2010.

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