Economy of Belarus

The cumulative decline of value-added reached 30 percent since 1991, and 15 percent since 1995. The share of agriculture in GDP declined by over 10 percentage point to 14 percent in 1997 this happened, irrespective to the president's economic strategy of self sufficiency in food production in 2001. The decline in overall agriculture production partly could be attributed to unfavorable weather conditions (like floods), but declines in the harvests of potatoes, vegetables, and other crops that grow mostly in private plots were smaller than in produce grown by collective farms. Also, animal breeding has been in decline and it is concentrated in the state sector. Subsidization of agricultural sector in Belarus amounted to 1-2 percent of GDP in the form of direct government credits, advanced payments for the realization of state orders of major crops, at strongly negative interest rates.

The Orsha Linen Mill, which is a part of the Belarusian State Concern Bellegprom, processes from flax a number of linen fabrics, which necessitates "spinning, weaving, dyeing, mechanical, chemical softening, shrinkage and other textile processings." The linen mill was projected from 1928; the first factory was completed in 1930, the second in 1961 and the third in 1972. In 2008, the plant supplied 8% of the global market for linen fabrics, when 5,000 workers processed 25,000 tonnes of flax fiber.

Belarus is a partner country of the EU INOGATE energy programme, which has four key topics: enhancing energy security, convergence of member state energy markets on the basis of EU internal energy market principles, supporting sustainable energy development, and attracting investment for energy projects of common and regional interest.<br>According to some estimates, profits stemming from the low prices the country pays for Russian gas and oil -either consumed locally or processed and then re-exported- has occasionally accounted to up to 10% of national GDP. Besides, the main export market for the Belarusian agricultural and industrial produce lies in its Russian neighbour.

All the activities related to prospecting, exploration and production of oil and associated gas in the country are carried out by the government controlled concern Belneftekhim via its subsidiary, the unitary republic enterprise Belorusneft. Belorusneft exports about 50% of its oil output. Oil deposits on the territory of Belarus are located in a single oil and gas basin, the Pripyat depression, which covers approximately 30,000 km2. About 50 out of total of 70 known fields are currently under production. Belarus' own production covers only about 30% of domestic oil consumption. For this reason, the Government is seeking ways to access oil and gas resources on the territory of the Russia and other countries, so that oil produced there could be delivered to refineries in Belarus and refined products would be sold domestically and on export markets.

Although not rich in minerals, Belarus has been found to have small deposits of iron ore, nonferrous metal ores, dolomite, potash (for fertilizer production), rock salt, phosphorites, refractory clay, molding sand, sand for glass production, and various building materials.