State support helped the companies affiliated with the Industry Ministry increase output, Belarus’ Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov said.
“Support provided to the companies of the Industry Ministry during this complicated period helped them increase the output by 0.7% over 2015 and 1.4% in January-July 2016. Backlog of inventories was reduced by almost Br2 trillion (non-redenominated)”, Andrei Kobyakov said.
The number of loss-making companies has been steadily decreasing.
“In January-June the number of such enterprises contracted by 31%. Their number, however, remains high, 1,738 companies (1,393 companies in 2015). Despite an 8% decrease in the number of loss-making companies in the Industry Ministry, the aggregate losses are, mainly, generated in the industry sector, which is 46%”, Andrei Kobyakov said.
The Prime Minister stressed that the government had been consistently implementing the financial recovery program in all sectors of the economy, without increasing the money supply. Last year, increased attention was paid to the problems of mechanical engineering, processing and light industries.
“This year we are keeping an eye on agriculture. The decrees defining the mechanisms for the financial recovery of agricultural organizations were enacted in July. We will make full use of the tool to manage the assets of the most troubled enterprises through the new Asset Management Agency”, he said.
The next in line are processing enterprises of the agricultural industry.
“A draft decree on the development of such enterprises in Vitebsk Region has been submitted to the head of state. Simultaneously, work is under way in Gomel and Minsk Regions. In fact, the regional authorities have been given additional time and opportunity to sort things out on a systematic basis, and launch a self-reproducing mechanism of recovery of agricultural enterprises”, the Prime Minister said. (BelTA/Business World Magazine)