BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/03/2008

Belarus abandons notion of state "golden share"

MINSK, March 4 (Reuters) - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday rescinded the 1990s concept of a "golden share" with which the state could control private companies.

Lukashenko's press service said a presidential decree had done away with the practice, seen by Western investors as a hindrance to increased interest in the ex-Soviet state.

"Abandoning this practice will help create favourable conditions for direct foreign investment in the Belarussian economy's real sector, the achievement of 2008 growth forecasts, an improved international rating for Belarus and the defence of investors on the securities market," it said in a statement.

Lukashenko and other senior officials have called for improved relations with the West, including an influx of investment, since Belarus last year quarrelled with traditional ally Russia over energy prices.

Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights, has pursued economic policies of heavy state intervention in the economy, including substantial subsidies and benefits. But authorities have also called for increased borrowing on international markets and selective privatisations.

Yelena Rakova of the Institute of Privatisation and Management, discounted the effects of the "golden share" in post-Soviet Belarus but welcomed its disappearance.

"The very fact it existed, the fact that at any time the state could start issuing orders to a company someone had bought amounted to a scarecrow for all foreign investors," she said.

"But a real inflow of investment will depend on how consistent government policies will be," Rakova added. (Reporting by Andrei Makhobsky, Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by David Cowell)

Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7356934

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