Foreign Capital Flees from Belarus

Officials have released information about companies that have attracted foreign investment.

The accounting period was not easy for such organizations, writes banki24.by.

The State Statistics Committee considers real sector companies (except for banks and non-governmental organizations) as organizations with foreign capital if they have at least $100 of foreign investment in their statutory funds. The annual data includes small and microbusinesses. Therefore, one can consider this statistic as quite comprehensive.

By early 2021, the number of organizations with foreign capital has decreased to 6,503. A year earlier, officials counted 6623 such companies across the country.

Minsk is a concentration point for companies with foreign capital. In the capital, 3,576 companies reported to the authorities (a year earlies, 3,619 companies). On the whole, Minsk accounts for 55% of such businesses from the total number in Belarus.

Russian organizations with their foreign investment dominate by the origin of the capital from the CIS region - 2,315 units. However, there were more of them last year - 2,391.

Ukraine takes second place with 314 companies (324 a year earlier). It turns out that in 2020, the Belarusian economy lost some of the companies from these countries. The likely reasons are the global crisis and the situation in the country after August.

Capital from Lithuania (545), Cyprus (438), Poland (322), Germany (318) and Latvia (309) is represented in Belarus. By early 2021, all of these countries, except Germany, have reduced their quantitative presence in the Belarusian market.

It is worth noting that the interest of Cyprus is associated primarily not with the island capital but with the businesses that originate from the former Soviet Union - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. Given the complex operating environment in the CIS, it is easier for entrepreneurs to structure capitals and transactions through management companies with a Cypriot jurisdiction.

One should also look with great carefulness at investments from Western countries. In the summer of 2019, British Ambassador Fiona Gibb said that most British investments in Belarus "are actually Russian" and were "companies from Russia that have an office in London."

Formally, UK businesses have invested in 189 companies in Belarus; U.S. businesses have invested in 190. Only the ambassadors of the corresponding states and industry experts can know the reality.

By early 2021, the industrial sector (1245), trade (2009), real estate (642) and the information and communication sector (638) accounted for the largest number of companies with foreign investments.