The launch of a new investment cycle and the instruction of President Alexander Lukashenko "One District – One Project" has become a kind of incentive for the emergence of significant projects and attract financing for their implementation in the regions.
Implementing the Union programs also gave an additional impetus to the development of industry. This was told by Irina Rusak, Candidate of Economic Sciences, analyst at the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research:
– The share of investments in fixed assets in GDP in annual terms over the past 5 years was the largest in 2019 (21.4%, in 2022 – 14.9%). Indices of investments in fixed assets at comparable prices have been declining since 2019 (in 2019 – 106.6%, in 2022 – 80.9% compared to the previous year). In 2022, we did not reach the level of 2019, but the indicators of January-August 2023 are encouraging. The economy is adapting rather slowly, but positive changes are already seen, and progress has appeared to improve the overall state of the economy ingeneral. In 2021, per capita was 3,300 rubles of investments, in 2022 – 3084.2 rubles. Another interesting fact: more than half of investments in fixed assets in 2022 were in the service sector, although the production sector always prevailed before.
The 2023 showed an increase in investments in fixed assets in almost all regions of the country (excluding Gomel region – 99.99% in January-August 2023 against January-August 2022). It was possible to reach the level of 2022 and increase the pace already in May this year. For 8 months, the total increase was more than 10.4%. The maximum volume of attracted investments is in the Minsk region and Minsk (24.2 and 18.6% of the total volume in the country), the minimum is in the Mogilev region (7.6% of republican investments). A significant part, in addition to construction and installation work, goes to the purchase of machinery, equipment and vehicles. The new partnership relations between the regions of Belarus and the regions of Russia also promote cooperation and attract investment to our country, Irina Rusak noted.