Belarus may become the most advanced country in the world in the regulation of blockchain technologies. Authorities may effectively legalize cryptocurrencies. This is one of the innovations planned in the framework of the announced package of laws aimed at liberalizing the business climate in Belarus.
This week Minsk is holding an event in the frame of the global entrepreneurship week, where businessmen and officials are discussing the possibility of a breakthrough innovation in the domestic economy.
In his welcoming speech at the opening ceremony Belarus Prime Minister Andrey Kabyakou promised maximum transparency on the side of the authorities when engaging in dialogue with the private sector.
Certain steps of the authorities towards entrepreneurs have already been observed.
The representative of the Development Bank, which is involved in the organization of the forum, told our channel that this year her bank had allocated to SMEs loans for the sum exceeding all the previous loans combined.
However, as chairman of the Development Bank Syarhey Rumas told Belsat, although small businesses receive much more money than ever before, their share in the banking portfolio is still small. The lion’s share of resources is still used for lending, which in fact means subsidizing of unprofitable state enterprises.
Therefore, loans to businesses in Belarus are more expensive than at our neighbors’, and the are scarce.
The business community holds high hopes about the announced package of ten presidential decrees aimed at liberalizing the business climate in Belarus. Deputy Economy Minister Vasyl Matyusheusky told “Belsat”, that these documents are currently on the last stage of approval.
Some of these acts are aimed at simplifying legislation and limiting the activity of the supervisory bodies.
A separate direction is the extension of the High Technologies Park competence. If the rumors about the content of the decrees are justified, Belarus may become the most advanced country in the world in liberalization of the cryptocurrency and blokchain technology, representative of the Singapore venture fund dedicated to investing in high technology said.
Legalization of the cryptocurrencies will allow to use the surplus electricity from the future nuclear power plant for mining. To put it simply, it will be printing of electronic money. However, the expert said, other countries, unlike Belarus, are cautious about the legalization of blockchain.
Although “Bitcoin” is considered a promising direction, the technology is still too unpredictable and in the short term may bring potential threats to the existing financial system. As for using nuclear power to mine cryptocurrencies, the potential benefits of this will not last long.
All experts recognize that development of high-tech park, in spite of certain risks, has a lot of potential. Meanwhile, the prospects of the real sector are disappointing. The Chinese-Belarusian industrial park, which offered investors extraordinary privileges, was to become a springboard for the industry just like it did for the high-tech park, but in five years did not build a single plant. The reason for it is that no foreign or domestic investors not believe that in case of conflict with the authorities, they will be able to protect their investment in the Belarusian courts.
Stanislau Ivashkevich, belsat
