MINSK — If not for the occasional foreign-language billboard or a foreign car passing by, this city could easily be mistaken for the set of an old Soviet movie.
The extras smile and politely give you directions. Some even take you where you need to go for free or will provide you with change for your fare on public transportation, where you can ride with equally polite commuters.
The central thoroughfares of the Belarussian capital carry familiar Soviet names. The Palace of the Republic is located at the intersection of Engels and International streets while the presidential palace sits on Karl Marx Street.
Minsk's aesthetics can easily leave visiting Russians nostalgic for their childhood. In 2008, it was even chosen as the location for the film “Stilyagi,” about hip Moscow youths of the 1950s.
But aside from these well-preserved Soviet throwbacks, the government is quickly pushing ahead to make Minsk into a modern and investor-friendly city. Several key steps have already been taken to make this happen, notably the creation of the National Agency of Investment and Privatization, which was set up to help with the arduous process of selling off Belarus' state assets.
And perhaps with the assumption that investors will be making money and need places to spend it, the government legalized gambling in 2005, so the city now boasts more than 30 casinos, the biggest of them developed by foreign investors.
Belarus has also moved forward in cooperating with the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, a part of the World Bank, which insures investors against political and other noncommercial risks.
Active investors agree that the Belarussian business climate still has many shortcomings, not least of which is the authoritarian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko. But they say the overall investment potential of the country is good.
Local lawyer Sergei Mashonsky advises foreign companies to get involved but points out that some of the key problems that investors could face in Belarus today are insufficient protection of private business property rights, complexities in the tax system and excessive interference by state organs in company activities.
Some of the leftover Soviet traits now benefit manufacturers in the country.
“Belarus has managed to preserve the standardization system that was created in the USSR. The success of Belarussian products that we are seeing owes much to that system,” said Dmitry Bury, general director of Polimaster, a Belarussian company that sells radiation-detection equipment worldwide.
Stereotypes about the country may be hard to overcome. Fortunately for Minsk residents, they know all too well how to deal with adversity.
Minsk has burned down 18 times in its history, and the extensive bombing campaigns of World War II eliminated the city's architectural gems.
Nazis seized the city on the sixth day of the war. More than 40,000 people were killed during the three-year occupation, and when the smoke cleared, the surviving residents were left in a sea of rubble. More than 80 percent of houses were destroyed, as were most factories and theaters. Minsk received the title of a hero city for its partisan resistance, but it had to be completely rebuilt.
Despite the challenges that city residents have faced throughout history, they remain eternally upbeat and optimistic. It should not be a surprise then that one of the sayings that can be heard in Minsk is “what will burn will not rot, so let it burn!”
Those coming to Minsk with the impression that it is a hotbed of authoritarianism, a gambling playground or a backward ex-Soviet metropolis may be disappointed. The city's calm atmosphere and friendly residents help to offset its less marketable elements. And this special charm touches not only those nostalgic for Soviet traditions but also younger generations that never got to experience them. Read more.
Lena Smirnova,
The Moscow Times