Massive investments to upgrade Belarusian agricultural enterprises by 2015
2012-12-05 10:31:25
There are plans to appropriate Br64 trillion to modernize Belarusian agricultural enterprises. The information was released by First Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister of Belarus Mr Leonid Marinich on 4 November, BelTA has learned.
Approaches to modernizing agricultural enterprises were discussed at the session of the Council of Ministers Presidium on 4 November.
The agricultural output is steadily rising in Belarus, however, the majority of agricultural enterprises perform way below their real capabilities. There are differences in manufacturing and economic indicators between agricultural enterprises at the regional level, too.
The main target of the modernization campaign is to bridge the gap between successful performers and those, which lag behind. There are plans to modernize the Belarusian agriculture within the next 2-3 years. It is necessary to prepare the industry for operation in conditions of the Single Economic Space and the global food market. To do it, there are plans to improve manufacturing procedures, retool the enterprises, introduce new kinds of products, and assimilate technical and technological innovations.
A total of Br64 trillion will be spent on modernization, said Leonid Marinich. The sum will include proprietary means of companies, foreign investments and credit resources.
Thanks to modernization the milk output is expected to reach 10 million tonnes by 2015 and 12.5 million tonnes by 2020. Meat production is expected to reach 2.7 million tonnes by 2020. Close attention will be paid to the deep processing of agricultural products. Instructions have been issued to raise the share of products with a high added value in the country’s export up to 30% as early as next year and up to 70% by 2015.
At present there are 83 agricultural enterprises with excellent performance in Belarus. They constitute about 7% of the total number of agricultural enterprises in the country. About 22% of the total number perform poorly. It is the enterprises that will be paid close attention during modernization.