VITEBSK, 20 May (BelTA) – The free economic zone Vitebsk presented 12 projects worth over ?45 million at the international forum “Innovation business – investments in future”. The forum is scheduled to take place in Vitebsk on 20-21 May, BelTA learned from Ilona Terletskaya, Deputy Head of the Investments and Foreign Trade Department of the free economic zone Vitebsk. Investors were offered a project to start manufacturing LED products for lighting houses and structures in the FEZ Vitebsk. As much as ?1.5 million is required to build manufacturing facilities, buy equipment and raw materials, and certify products. A ?4 million project to bottle mineral water and beverages can be implemented in the Belarusian company OAO Vityas that has its own wells of artesian and mineral waters. The chemical composition of the waters matches the best products Belarus can offer. Yet the company uses less than half of the potential of these sources. Two more projects that FEZ Vitebsk presented at the forum provide for setting up an enterprise for deep processing of timber and a factory to recycle solid municipal waste. The investments required are ?1.5 million and ?20 million respectively. Another eight investment projects are in the primary organization phase, said Ilona Terletskaya. Those are projects for starting up the production of soles and heels made of rubber and synthetic polymers (?1.3 million), production of special purpose vehicles (?2.6 million), enhancement of the capacity to make fire-extinguishing solutions (?3.7 million), production of road construction machines and equipment (?1 million), thermal insulation facing panels using clinker slabs (?4 million), packaging products made of polyethylene and polypropylene films (?1 million), development of the manufacturing capacity and the capacity to provide the service of liquefied gas transportation (?2.4 million). Apart from that, the Orsha aircraft repairs plant is implementing a ?2.3 million project to remodel and retool its manufacturing capacity. The free economic zone Vitebsk was founded in August 1999. At present 38 investment projects are being implemented in the free economic zone. More than 60% of FEZ Vitebsk resident companies are joint ventures and foreign-owned companies that have been set up with assistance of investors from 13 countries, including Germany, Poland, the USA, Czechia, the UK, Russia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Israel. Enterprises specializing in mechanical engineering, food industry, chemical, fuel, and light industries constitute the foundation of the industrial potential of the free economic zone Vitebsk.

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