China-belarus Industrial Park: Exemplary Piece of the Belt and Road
China’s Belt and Road Initiative, composed of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st- Century Maritime Silk Road, has revived the ancient Silk Road by lifting win-win cooperation between China and various Eurasian states to a new level. The China-belarus Industrial Park (CBIP), which is now under construction in Belarus, is considered an exemplary project under the Initiative.
Tax Free for Ten Years
In 2010, China and Belarus reached a consensus to construct the CBIP. Two years later, the two countries founded a joint venture to begin construction on the industrial park, with a planned area of 91.5 square kilometers. According to Li Haixin, general manager of the joint venture, the CBIP is looking at a promising future thanks to strong support from both the Chinese and Belarusian governments.
Belarus even issued a presidential order to exempt enterprises settling in the industrial park from taxes for their first 10 years and cut the amounts of payable taxes by half for the second 10 years. Tenants of the CBIP are granted the right to use the land for as long as 99 years. These measures create a favorable environment for companies to settle in the industrial park. The Chinese consider the CBIP a key project under the Belt and Road Initiative. The China-belarus Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee formed a coordination group to aid enterprises settling in the park and facilitate construction.
An important country along the Silk Road Economic Belt, Belarus has strong transportation infrastructure, advanced aviation facilities and vast road networks. It is also a key passage for freight trains from China to Europe. Along with its favorable geographic location, and as a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Belarus is a significant economic link between the EEU and the European Union (EU). Products from enterprises in the CBIP can be sold tariff-free to countries such as Russia and Kazakhstan and markets of more than 170 million people. Belarus’ favorable geographic location and huge potential market have increased the industrial park’s attractiveness to investors, making it a significant driving force to promote China-belarus cooperation and accelerate Belarus’ economic development.
By the end of 2016, the infrastructure construction of the first phase of the CBIP, with an area of 3.5 square kilometers, was completed. The first 15 enterprises have settled in the industrial park, including eight Chinese companies such as Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. and telecommunication equipment giants Huawei and ZTE. Li Haixin reveals that another 20 Chinese enterprises have expressed an interest in the industrial park. In 2016, the CBIP received 118 visiting groups from various industrial enterprises.
Sun Jiwen, spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, remarked at a news conference on April 13, 2017 that both China and Belarus agreed that the CBIP project had shifted from a preparatory stage to a period of both construction and operation.
Demonstrative Effect
During a meeting in May 2015, the Chinese and Belarusian heads of state agreed to make the CBIP a key project for bilateral cooperation, develop it into a shining pearl along the Silk Road Economic Belt and publicize it as a good example of win-win cooperation between the two countries.
Tang Luhao, chief representative of ZTE in Russia and the Baltic states, believes that the CBIP has created a new opportunity for Chinese enterprises to go abroad. “Chinese companies in the industrial park can huddle together to ‘keep each other warm’ by jointly addressing the challenges they face in the process of going abroad, which will promote common development,” he explains. “Moreover, the services provided by the industrial park will help settlers overcome difficulties as quickly as possible and increase the success rate of expanding overseas.”
Construction of the CBIP and the Belt and Road Initiative complement each other. According to Tang, the industrial park will create a strong demonstrative effect for Chinese companies looking to go abroad, and its success will provide valuable experience amid implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.
The CBIP will greatly benefit Belarus in fields like economics, employment and transportation. When completed, it is expected that over 200 hi-tech companies will settle in the industrial park, creating more than 120,000 jobs. Supplemented by the advanced transport and logistics facilities constructed by China Merchants Group and other companies, the CBIP will become a comprehensive industrial park featuring a practical layout, coordinated development of various hi-tech industries, and tremendous economic and social achievement. Moreover, it will help create a new internationalized airport town with a population of 200,000 through integrating industrial development and urbanization.
During a press conference for Chinese journalists in Minsk, Nikolai Snopkov, deputy director of the Executive Office of the President of Belarus, pointed out that the CBIP is the fruit of a joint proposal by the Chinese and Belarusian heads of state to build a cooperation base for Chinese companies in Belarus and a platform for China’s heavy machinery makers to find opportunities in Europe. He added that Belarus welcomes and supports construction of the Eurasian Continental Bridge under the Belt and Road Initiative and is ready to serve as a hub for the entire Eurasian region. Belarus aspires to constantly improve its transportation and logistics connectivity as well as flow of information.