Belarus

This chapter briefly presents the context of Belarus’s water policy with its overarching objective to ensure water security. It outlines the work of the European Union Water Initiative Plus (EUWI+), which strives to support the harmonisation of Eastern Partnership (EaP) water resource management policies with the EU’s Water Framework Directive and integrated water resource management principles, including through the facilitation of policy dialogues on water. It highlights the efforts designed to improve strategic and mid-term planning at the national, basin and local levels. Other EUWI+ activities covered in this chapter aim to strengthen co-operation on transboundary bodies of water, improve data management and the national monitoring framework, build local capacity and execute pilot projects to enhance water security.

This report presents the results of collaboration on improving water security in Belarus, between the beneficiary country, the OECD and its partners implementing the EU-funded European Union Water Initiative Plus project. It provides an overview of the composition and distribution of the country’s water resources, including the particular challenges facing different regions (oblasts), and lays out the policy responses that Belarus has taken and planned to progress its overarching policy objective of ensuring water security within the framework of the future national Water Strategy in the Context of Climate Change for the Period until 2030. The report also provides an assessment of potential opportunities to boost water security in Belarus by supporting the country’s ongoing water policy reform agenda.

This report analyses planned infrastructure projects, decision-making frameworks related to infrastructure development and strategic planning documents in the six countries of the EU Eastern Partnership: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It compares current investment flows with countries' national development objectives to identify misalignments and provides policy-makers with recommendations to improve the integration of climate change and other environmental concerns into infrastructure development decision-making processes. The report presents a comprehensive overview of infrastructure investment, primarily in the transport and energy sectors, throughout the region and identifies the risks and opportunities emerging from current investment patterns.

This chapter provides an overview of the composition and distribution of the country’s water resources across the river basins and regions (oblasts) of Belarus. It presents the effects of climate change and other anthropogenic pressures on the quantity, quality and seasonal availability of water resources as well as the progress Belarus has made over time towards a less water-intensive economy. It includes four case studies displaying the diversity of challenges facing different oblasts in Belarus with varying endowments of water resources and demographic trends and pressures. The chapter also describes the policy instruments and legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks that form the country’s water resource management system. On the subject of monitoring surface and groundwater, the chapter presents concrete examples of how the process of delineating water bodies and monitoring water quality has taken place in Belarus through the European Union Water Initiative Plus project.

The SME Policy Index: Eastern Partner Countries 2020 – Assessing the Implementation of the Small Business Act for Europe is a unique benchmarking tool to assess and monitor progress in the design and implementation of SME policies against EU and international best practice. It is structured around the ten principles of the Small Business Act for Europe (SBA), which provide a wide range of pro-enterprise measures to guide the design and implementation of SME policies. This report marks the third edition in this series, following assessments in 2012 and 2016. It provides a comprehensive overview of the state of play in the implementation of the ten SBA principles, and monitors progress made since 2016. It also identifies remaining challenges affecting SMEs in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries and provides recommendations to address them based on EU and international good practice examples. The 2020 edition also features a novelty: An assessment of three new dimensions going beyond core SME policy (competition, contract enforcement and business integrity) looking at key structural reform priorities that are critical to establishing a level playing field for enterprises of all sizes and ownership types.

Belarus has recently taken a more pro-active approach to supporting private entrepreneurship by promoting its small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). The value of private sector participation in the economy is increasingly acknowledged by the government and steps are being taken to develop a comprehensive SME support policy. SME growth could be fostered through further liberalisation of economic activities which is only progressing at a slow pace.Creating supportive policies for SMEs will only yield tangible results if progress in privatisation leads to the opening up of new business opportunities for private entrepreneurs in Belarus. Alternatively, privatisation is more likely to succeed in creating a vibrant SME sector if an enabling policy framework is in place that allows entrepreneurship to thrive.

This chapter lays out the policy responses to the challenges identified in Chapter 2 within the context of Belarus’s new draft Strategy of Water Resource Management in the Context of Climate Change for the Period until 2030. It describes the Strategy’s development and its objectives linked to the water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The chapter also presents instruments to support the Strategy’s implementation, notably data collection and management systems, river basin management plans and the UNECE-WHO/Europe Protocol on Water and Health. The chapter zooms in on different sectoral, regional and basin-level challenges, focusing on rural water supply and sanitation, water-use efficiency standards for water-intensive enterprises, irrigation infrastructure rehabilitation and sub-basin management plans.

This chapter assesses opportunities to boost water security in Belarus by supporting the country’s ongoing reform agenda. It summarises the successes that Belarus has achieved, such as progress on harmonising its water policy with the EU’s Water Framework Directive and integrated water resources management principles as well as the development of river basin management plans for two of Belarus’s transboundary river basins. It also highlights improvements in Belarus’s inter-ministerial co-ordination on water management, efforts to achieve the water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and international co-operation on transboundary watercourses and lakes. The chapter concludes with a list of potential areas for further work to improve water security in Belarus.

Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has had profound effects on the maritime sector. It directly disrupted maritime activities in the Black and Azov seas, causing the suspension of Ukrainian port operations and agricultural exports. Although an export corridor temporarily resumed activities, the termination of the agreement in July 2023 continues to affect Ukrainian shipping. International sanctions against Russia and Belarus have notably targeted shipowners and shipbuilders, restricting Russian ships' access to OECD ports. These sanctions have also halted orders for Russian ship owners in OECD countries, reducing new orders and vessel completions in Russian shipyards. While global seaborne trade and ship demand remain relatively unaffected, the war has prompted longer-term impacts such as altered trading routes, changes in energy demand and costs, potential implications for maritime decarbonisation, and an increase in "dark fleet" vessels.

Based on the OECD standard methodology, the study presents quantitative estimates of government support to consumers and producers of coal, oil and related petroleum products and natural gas, and electricity and heat generated from these fossil fuels. This report summarises the main findings of the analysis of fossil-fuel subsidy schemes in the six European Union's Eastern Partner (EaP) countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The study updates the 2018 Inventory of Energy Subsidies in the EU’s Eastern Partnership Countries by providing data and estimates for 2016‑19. The analysis focuses on measuring two major types of fossil-fuel subsidies: direct transfers of funds to producers and consumers; and tax expenditure. This report also briefly discusses the taxation and energy pricing policies that have had direct or indirect impact on the evolution of fossil-fuel subsidies in the region. Detailed estimates of all individual support measures for each of the six countries are provided in Annexes to the report.

This publication provides the results of collaboration on water security between the Republic of Belarus (hereafter “Belarus”), the OECD and its partners implementing the EU-funded EU Water Initiative Plus project. As such, it is the most recent chapter in the OECD’s long history of engagement on water-related issues in the region of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA). The OECD has supported the EECCA countries since the early 1990s as they transitioned towards market economies following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The OECD has provided guidance and expertise on strengthening water management as a major aspect of building greener economies and safeguarding long-term water, food and energy security. Its work has helped improve environmental and water management policies and facilitated the integration of environmental considerations into broader reform agendas.

The structure of revenue sharing between the various layers of governments affects the public sector’s incentives for providing infrastructure for private business development. The recent experience of Belarus has been that any change in local government’s own revenues is almost entirely offset by changes in shared revenues. Local governments are unable to benefit from an increase in the local tax base and, therefore do not see any interest in expanding it. This situation leads to stricter business regulation and lower growth compared with a system with greater fiscal incentives, and has a negative effect on the efficiency of local provision of public goods. A reform of the existing financial system for local governments is required to provide some degree of autonomy for local self-government, with the aim of enhancing local governments’ capacity to finance local development.