It is obvious that Belarus has been appearing more frequently in the news with a positive sign. So, fresh February rating Environmental Performance Index, which is annually published by Yale and Columbia Universities (USA) in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, placed the Republic of Belarus on the 35th place among 180 countries on the effectiveness of measures aimed at the protection and conservation of natural ecosystems and human health. By the way, this is one of the highest rates among the CIS countries (only Russia and Azerbaijan are a little bit higher). It is noteworthy that five years ago, our country occupied only 53th position in this study (163).
Yale University experts estimate countries by several main criteria: biodiversity, forest health, climate and energy, fishing industry, agriculture, natural water resources, drinking water safety, the level of human health and air quality. Experts stressed the high positions of Belarus in categories such as health, the quality of drinking water and access to electricity. The total score of Belarus in this study is 82.3 (out of 100), while the three leaders are Finland, Iceland and Sweden – a little bit more than 90 points.
Since 1990, the UN organization every year has been publishing a report on the quality of human life worldwide, in which achievements of countries are estimated by the life expectancy of citizens, level of health and education, social security, state of the environment, crime rates and other parameters. In 2011, Belarus ranked only 65th in that prestigious study. In 2015, the country headed the block of countries with high human development, raised by 15 positions up to 50th place. Russia shares with Belarus 50th place, Kazakhstan is 20 positions lower, Ukraine occupies 81th position.
World Bank experts that make up Doing Business Ranking, which assesses the level of development of business, the ease or difficulty of doing business, also noted the significant progress of our country: if in 2012, Belarus was given 69th position, then in 2015 the county was already on 44th place.
For the first time Minsk entered the list of the most promising for investments European cities. That was the decision of experts from fDi Intelligence (The Financial Times subdivision). While the ranking was compiled 481 locations were evaluated (cities, regions and metropolitan areas) by nearly a hundred different indicators, including such as the economic potential, human resources, level of costs of doing business, quality of life, quality of infrastructure, ease of doing business, strategy to attract foreign direct investments, etc. As a result, the Belarusian capital took 2nd place (!) on the effectiveness of the costs of doing business. In addition, Minsk rounded up the top 10 cities in the world on the best strategy to attract foreign direct investment. Investment demand (and hence the room for maneuver) is really huge: this figure due to the global economic crisis and slump in oil prices and severe turbulence in the Russian economy, a major trading partner, and in the Belarusian economy has been recently decreased (11.5 billion US dollars in 2015 against 15.1 billion US dollars a year earlier). At the same time, according to official statistics, the lion's share of investments (43.2%) accrues toRussia, followed by the UK (20.6%), the Netherlands, Cyprus, Austria and China.
According to Wolfgang Büchel, head of the Eastern Committee of German Economy, Belarus has a considerable economic potential, and a stable industrial base together with an advantageous position on the map of Europe can help the country to become a link between the European Union and Russia.
Meanwhile, investors are contemplating to invest or not to invest their money in economic projects, ordinary people, citizens of the neighboring countries contribute to the economic well-being of inhabitants of the republic, secretly developing the tourism industry. Last year Minsk (in the city competition), and Belarus (country classification) headed the ranking of the most popular tourist destinations among Russians in the CIS countries and abroad. Travel.ru came to such a decision, considering booking of hotels for the whole last year. Russians visit Vitebsk, Brest, Gomel, Grodno and Zaslavl with great pleasure.
Such love for Belarus on the part of its neighbors is rather predictable (especially in view of the complexities of Russian foreign policy relations with some popular country- resorts and the twists and turns of a currency rate). However, there is hope that every year more and more visitors will come from the other side of the border. Last year, Minsk for the first time with its 114th position entered the rating of the most promising tourist destinations in the world Global Destinatios Cities according to MasterCard . According to experts, the guests spent in Belarus about 165 million dollars last year. And this figure has been growing steadily for the last seven years.
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