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On 17 November 2010, Frankfurt-am-Main, a prominent financial centre of Europe, played host to the third Belarusian Investment Forum. The Belarusian Investment Forums have now become traditional, owing to well-deserved popularity amongst foreign investors. The Frankfurt-based event, a major part of the European Financial Week, was the second national forum staged abroad.
A high-profile Belarusian delegation was led by Belarus Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky and involved Ministers, heads of governmental bodies and concerns, entrepreneurial unions and flagship enterprises.
The attendees at the Investment Forum included nearly 800 people from 32 countries. Among them were senior officials of international economic organizations such as IFC, World Bank, EBRD, banks and financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Rothschild, Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Commerzbank, leading investment companies and multinationals such as Ernst & Young, Kronospan, AOI NV, Cushman & Wakefield, Strabag.
The Forum resulted in over 20 agreements concluded to implement investment projects in ferrous metallurgy, hospitality industry, waste recycling, machine building, food industry, wind energy. The total of investments raised was over $2.7bn.
The most prominent investment projects arising of the signed agreements included production of hot-rolled steel at the Belarus Steel Works in conjunction with Danieli & C.Officine Meccaniche S.P.A. from Italy (the rough price of the project is around $1bn); production of trains at the premises of Belkommunmash for the Belarus Railway in conjunction with PESA Bydgoszcz SA from Poland (evaluated at 92 m euros); set-up by Kronospan from Austria of a hi-tech export-oriented wood-processing facility at the non-used premises of Smorgon Plant of Units and Parts (evaluated at $150m).
The Belarusian Forum helped expose strong investment potential of various industries to foreign investors in the light of the ongoing governmental policies of structural reform and liberalization.
For more details about the investment opportunities in the Republic of Belarus please contact the economic section of the Embassy to the USA at tel.1 202 986 94 20, as well as the National Agency for Investments and Privatization at tel. 375 17 268 04 65 (www.invest.belarus.by).
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