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Belarus Privatization
A conservative parliament and a lack of political will
have
slowed privatization in Belarus in comparison with other
former
Soviet republics. Although the Law on Privatization of
State
Property was approved in January 1993, the Supreme Soviet
did not
approve the 1993 State Program of Privatization and the
Law on
Privatization Checks (or vouchers) until that summer. By
the end
of the year, less than 2 percent of all republic assets
slated
for privatization had actually been transferred to the
private
sector. To speed the pace of privatization, the State
Committee
on Privatization was converted into a ministry with an
expanded
staff in March 1994.
The State Program of Privatization calls for two-thirds
of
state enterprises (see Glossary)
to be privatized during
1993-2000. Exemptions include defense-related industries,
monopolies
(such as utilities), and specialized enterprises working
with
gems and precious metals. Enterprises of strategic
importance can
be privatized only with the approval of the Cabinet of
Ministers,
and agricultural monopolies can be privatized only with
the
approval of the Anti-Monopoly Committee.
According to the privatization law, 50 percent of each
entity
slated for privatization will be distributed to the
populace via
vouchers, and 50 percent will be sold for cash; the prices
of the
entities will be adjusted for inflation. (There are
separate
vouchers for housing and property.) Every citizen was
eligible to
apply for privatization vouchers and open a voucher
account at
the Savings Bank (Sbyerbank) as of April 1, 1994. The
entitlement
is twenty property vouchers per citizen plus one voucher
for each
year worked, with additional allocations for orphans, the
disabled, and war veterans. All vouchers are scheduled to
be
distributed by January 1, 1996.
In 1995 the practice was quite different from the
theory.
Privatization of large firms, delayed by the government
under
various pretexts, had not even started. (Much resistance
to
privatization also came from factory managers and
politicians,
particularly at the local level.) At best, some 10 percent
of
state enterprises had been privatized. Privatization plans
for
1995 call for another 500 state-owned enterprises (4
percent of
the total) to be privatized.
Data as of June 1995
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