“We view the year 2014 as a transition period for the Development Bank. This year the bank will get ready to assume the functions of a coordinator of funds for government programs,” Sergei Rumas said. The task was set by the head of state and the head of government. The Development Bank is working with the Finance Ministry, Economy Ministry and the National Bank towards a common understanding of the Bank’s new role, Sergei Rumas noted.

“In our view, the Bank will be able to perform the new function in full and efficiently only if the approaches to the financing of government programs are revised,” Sergei Rumas said.

The Development Bank suggests the following. Taking into account limited resources available in Belarus, the country should identify the priority industries. After that every such industry should be closely studied in order to identify the facilities that need to be upgraded or built in order to ensure the fulfillment of quality growth targets. When this stage is complete, the Development Bank will conduct a contest to select the most efficient business plans and will provide financing for them.

“This scheme of planning government programs provides that the Development Bank will act as an independent expert, while efficiency will be the major criteria of choosing the projects to finance,” Sergei Rumas said.

The first stage of this scheme will be launched in the near future.

Upon the Premier’s instruction, the Development Bank, the Economy Ministry and the Finance Ministry will work out a plan to finance government programs in 2014. The plan will spell out the financing details for the projects that were launched earlier or will be started in 2014. “This plan will contain a complete list of projects and the fixed amount of financing for each of them. Thus we will enhance the transparency and efficiency of implementation of government programs,” Sergei Rumas underlined.

This plan is to be approved by the government and the National Bank by the end of the week.