What Is Wrong About Lukashenka’s ‘Great Stone’?

Most investments in the industrial park come from the Belarusian budget.

To double Belarusian exports, and to attract dozens million dollars of investments. With such promises, Aliaksandr Lukashenka justified one of the largest investment projects - the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park near Smaliavichy. See the results in the material of Belsat.

A billion dollars of declared investment, almost half of which have already been used. This is how the administration of the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park “The Great Stone” announced the results of its work last week.

The statement was made during the International Economic Forum, part of which was held in the “Great Stone”. During the forum, 11 new companies became the technopark residents. Their total number, according to the official data, has already exceeded fifty. Over the past year, the territory was filled with new administrative and industrial buildings. A relatively large Zoomlion plant is under construction. The town begins to acquire residential buildings and cafes.

However, the devil begins to manifest itself in the details. First, as we were told in the administration, only 12 residents are involved in actual production. This figure looks too high though. So, the offices and production sites of a number of companies are clearly uninhabited and empty at the height of the working Monday.

Economist Leanid Fridkin explains:

“In general, the benefits that are given to the park by decrees, are designed mainly for export production.

As for the half a billion dollars of investment, allegedly implemented in the Great Stone, the vast majority of this money comes from the Belarusian budget and is invested in the infrastructure of the park. And this is more than the annual republican budget for medical care to the population.

The only major foreign investor that invests dozens of millions of dollars is the China Merchants logistics company. However, this company is not engaged in production. At the same time, it enjoys privileges intended for high-tech investors and due to this, it has a price advantage over Belarusian warehouse operators that pay taxes.