ECONOMY The Minsk Times Thursday, June 5, 2014 5 Austrians ready Bidders to bring their technologies soon to show By Tatiana Grigorieva Austrian Strabag AG can take part in the construction of concrete roads in Belarus, themselves including of the second ring road around Minsk Prospects of co-operation with Four Russian companies would the Austrian company have been discussed by Belarus’ Transport and like to take part in the tender to Communications Minister Anatoly Sivak and member of the Board of purchase the blocking stake of Directors of Strabag AG Marcus Grodno Azot Kaller. The Minister noted that in the “I do not know whether they envisaging the construction of a last few years Belarusian road con- have submitted their applications new nitrogen facility. In line with struction companies have not built yet, but judging by the prelimi- the contract, the investor will have any concrete roads while contractors nary stage, and the talks at Grodno to finance the project till December do not have the necessary equip- Azot and the government, I see 31st, 2019 using the existing infra- ment. This is why the involvement four possible participants,” noted structure of Grodno Azot for its of foreign companies is possible Belarus’ First Deputy Prime Minis- implementation. with regard to the transfer of tech- ter, Vladimir Semashko. These are Before all the commitments are nologies or in the capacity of sub- Rosneft, Gazprom and EuroChem. honoured, the investor’s rights to contractors. Sufficient experience in When asked about the fourth com- manage Grodno Azot shares will this sphere as well as the proposed pany, Mr. Semashko said that this be restricted. Moreover, until 2025, technologies and costs are the major company is from the Urals. Belarus will enjoy the priority right factors for the Belarusian side. The State Property Commit- to buy shares of the company. As far as co-operation with Aus- tee announced a tender in order to Chairman of the State Property trian colleagues is concerned, the find an investor that will take part Committee, Georgy Kuznetsov Transport and Communications in privatising state-owned shares of had said earlier that Russia’s Euro- Ministry sees several options: con- Grodno Azot. The tender is sched- Chem, accounting for 2 percent of cession, contracting, and the use of uled for July 29th, 2014. The inves- the global market of mineral fer- financial resources. tor will be offered to buy 25 percent tilisers, might become this inves- According to Mr. Kaller, the of the shares plus one share. The tor. Among EuroChem’s biggest Austrian company can bring new initial price for the package is $414 projects in 2013 was the develop- technologies to build concrete roads million. The price for the shares was ment of phosphate ore deposits in to Belarus as well as equipment. determined taking into account di- Kazakhstan. At a meeting with the The company can also implement rect natural gas deliveries from a Belarusian PM in April 2014, Euro- a turn-key project. “We see a great cross-country pipeline of Gazprom Chem’s representatives confirmed potential for our collaboration,” Transgaz Belarus to Grodno Azot. their interest in co-operation and notes the member of the Board of

The investor will have to sign an prepared a presentation of their ca- BELTA Directors of Strabag AG. “We can investment contract with the state, pacities. Grodno Azot among the largest chemical enterprises bring our technologies and experi- ence of getting funded by European institutions. Our participation in Taxed on the construction of the second ring Cash losing its popularity road around Minsk would be an intelligence ideal starting project,” underlines Mr. Kaller. By Stanislav Galkovsky Number of non-cash transactions in Belarus rose He also informed Belarusian colleagues about other business A Gomel resident declared by 15 percent in the first quarter of 2014 interests of the Strabag AG, in par- his income for 2013 as a remote banking service to their ticular, the construction of railroads Br2.13 billion. He is an clients. Now, such services as In- and hydraulic installations. The individual entrepreneur ternet-banking are the most popu- sides discussed possible interaction who renders services to a lar among card holders, with al- in the joint project to build railroads Russian company in IT field. most 14 percent of the Belarusian outside Belarus. Mr. Kaller said that The programmer paid Br256 population using it. The National in its co-operation with the Belaru- million in taxes. However, Bank of Belarus believes that it’s sian side the concern is ready to go in the Gomel Region he is necessary to develop the remote as far as the establishment of joint not the only billionaire. Last banking services and popularise ventures. year, the annual income of these systems among card holders, 572 individual entrepreneurs including the Internet-banking of the region was over Br1 service which promotes the in- Innovation billion. crease of volumes of transactions, The Deputy Head of Inspec- performed by banks’ clients in the launched from tion for the Ministry of Taxes non-cash mode. and Duties in the Gomel District, For example, Bank BelVEB JSC the capital Dmitry Daineko, told about what notes that it’s gradually shifting to businesses are profitable, “In electronic sales channels where a By Ignaty Petrovsky case of programmers, money is card is a key to a whole range of earned by intellectual work. In- By Veniamin Mishin An average card transaction services. The card can be used to Free door-to-door delivery of come from trade and transporta- amounted to around Br122,000 in perform any payments, transfer goods from Evroopt virtual tion is higher. Last year, a busi- According to National Bank the first quarter of this year, with money abroad, control one’s own hypermarket for Minskers nessman who sold cars became data, the first three months of 2014 one card being used to perform deposits in the real time, etc. The At present, the virtual hyper- the absolute leader in terms of saw 193m bank card transactions 11 non-cash transactions. “Judg- share of non-cash transactions ex- market (‘E-delivery’ on the com- income with Br32 billion, while — worth over Br66 trillion, whilst ing by the results of the first three ceeds 23 percent in this bank from pany’s website) offers over 2,000 the amount of a sanitary-ware the total number of non-cash months of 2014, a positive dynam- the total volume of transactions varieties of goods, including food wholesaler is lower at 8.5 billion. transactions totalled 137.5m — ic is being preserved in the share and reaches 60 percent from their products and consumer goods, These data concern the large worth Br17 trillion. Over the same of non-cash transactions in the to- total number. The practice shows own brand goods, and fruit and earnings of only individual entre- period of 2013, 120m transactions tal amount of transactions in Bela- that various actions stimulate the vegetables. Convenient naviga- preneurs. More than 28,000 indi- were performed countrywide with rusian Roubles, performed in the increase of non-cash transactions; tion helps shoppers easily find vidual entrepreneurs are in the a value of Br11 trillion. Therefore, infrastructure of Belarusian banks an obligatory condition for partic- their item, learn its price, select Gomel Region and last year they in general, we’re observing an in- with the use of bank cards,” notes ipating in these events is the per- the necessary amount and order contributed Br360 billion in taxes crease both in number and of the the National Bank. formance of non-cash payments delivery. It’s absolutely free for all to the treasury. sum of non-cash transactions. At present, 22 banks provide with the use of bank cards. orders over Br300,000.