Investors do not trust Lukashenka’s statistics

Official Belarusian statistics doesn’t reflect financial state and operating results of enterprises.

PRIME TASS learnt this from Justin Bancroft, a partner of Deloitte company in the CIS, who arrived in Minsk to take part the Belarusian Investment Forum.

“The Belarusian government makes more active efforts to attract foreign investments... But foreign investors do not trust Belarusian accounts, and so price in a risk of uncertainty as a discount on the price offered. This spoils the general investment image of the country,” Bancroft noted.

He emphasized that many fundamental principles of the international financial reporting standard (IFRS) are not introduced in the accounting legislation of Belarus.

“We think the government should create conditions for IFRS introduction and big enterprises should make reporting in accordance with international standards by analogy to a banking sector and audit this reporting,” Bancroft said.

Another problem mentioned by Bancroft is that company managements and governmental bodies sometimes do not have experience in business sale negotiations. “Professional agents are needed: independent valuers, auditors, financial consultants able to carry out pre-sale preparation of a company that will increase its cost. Unfortunately, state-run enterprises rarely resort to such services either because they do not understand a role and advantage of an advisor or because they fear to face problems with inspecting bodies when justifying expenses on consultations,” he added.

Bancroft noted a solution to the problems will make selling business more transparent and attractive for investors.