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VITEBSK, 27 April (BelTA) – The open joint-stock company Orsha Aircraft Repairs Plant has been registered as a resident company of the free economic zone Vitebsk. The company is the first one to be implementing an investment project at the new platform Yuzhnaya, representatives of the FEZ Vitebsk administration told BelTA. Using the new status Orsha Aircraft Repairs Plant plans to channel over Br10 billion into a project to modernize its manufacturing facilities and create a new tool and bench shop. The investment project also provides for repairing capital-intensive components for helicopters. It will allow the company to advance its technology, considerably renewing the main assets with heavy-duty equipment and improving the working conditions. Around 20 jobs will be created while more than 30 existing jobs will be modernized. The Yuzhnaya platform includes the sectors North Industrial Node (Orsha), Lyos (Baran), and the Aircraft Repairs Plant (the town of Bolbasovo), with the total area over 520 hectares. The expansion of the FEZ Vitebsk area has been stipulated by Belarus President decree No 674 of 24 December 2010. The free economic zone’s expansion has engulfed sectors, which are located in Vitebsk. Now the total area of the free economic zone Vitebsk exceeds 2,100 hectares. Specialists say that new platforms of the free economic zone have a serious investment potential and will allow implementing interesting projects with assistance of foreign investors. Conditions are suitable for creating a transportation and logistics center in the town of Bolbasovo where Orsha Aircraft Repairs Plant is located. The platform in Baran where the enterprise Lyos is located allows implementing high-tech projects in the future. The extra territories create new opportunities for the deployment of innovative, high-tech projects with massive investments in the free economic zone. The new territories allow resolving the problem of effective use of manufacturing premises, increasing the output of products and export potential, reducing tensions on the local employment market. The free economic zone Vitebsk was founded in August 1999. At present 38 investment projects are being implemented in the free economic zone. More than 60% of FEZ Vitebsk resident companies are joint ventures and foreign-owned companies that have been set up with assistance of investors from 15 countries, including Germany, Poland, the USA, Czechia, the UK, Russia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Israel. Enterprises specializing in mechanical engineering, food industry, chemical, fuel, and light industries constitute the foundation of the industrial potential of the free economic zone Vitebsk.

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