Economy Ministry Said to Have Devised Compromise Solution in Response to Sole Entrepreneurs’ Demands

A delegation of sole entrepreneurs was told at a meeting with government officials on Wednesday that the economy ministry’s enterprise department had devised a compromise solution to the problem of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s Edict No. 760.

The December 29, 2006 edict’s Paragraph 1.1, which bans business owners holding sole entrepreneur status from employing workers other than three family members starting January 1, 2008, triggered a general outcry among sole entrepreneurs.

According to Viktar Harbachow, a leader of small business owners’ association called For the Free Development of Enterprise, officials present at the meeting acknowledged that it would be premature to give effect to this ban. “They said that they had sent some proposals in this regard to the government and were expecting to receive an answer soon,” Mr. Harbachow said.

“In addition, they said that the period for sole entrepreneurs to re-register their businesses into ‘private unitary enterprises’ might be extended.”

“We put forward a number of demands, with the first one being to immediately declare a moratorium on the application of Paragraph 1.1,” Mr. Harbachow said. “We warned that we would sit down at the negotiating table only if this demand was satisfied.”

The delegation also demanded that a draft Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Law authored by entrepreneurs be enacted in the first half of 2008. According to Mr. Harbachow, this demand was met with approval by officials, who promised that the draft would be considered, and that its authors would be involved in its consideration at the Ministry of Economy.

The meeting took place at the office of the Minsk Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers and lasted for two hours and a half. In attendance were: Anatol Pawlovich, chairman of the House of Representatives’ standing Committee on Industry, the Fuel and Energy Complex, Transportation, Communications, and Enterprise; Alyaksandr Likhachewski, director of the enterprise department of the Ministry of Economy; Alyaksandr Darashenka, deputy minister of taxes and duties; and representatives of the State Customs Committee and the ministries of labor and justice.

According to Mr. Harbachow, lawmaker Pawlovich suggested that entrepreneurs should try to solve problems through negotiations, not street protests.