Belarus Talks to Rothschild to Put Something Big on its Privatization Plate
For those who are still not sure about Belarus privatization plans, there is another sign that the Government is serious about it.
Moscow Times reports that President Lukashenka invited the Rothschild Group to advise the government on evaluation of enterprises. Apparently, Belarus would not have invited the Rothschild Group to privatize small state-owned companies. Rothschild has been at the center of the world’s financial markets for over 200 years. It provides Investment Banking, Corporate Banking and Private Banking & Trust services to governments, corporations and individuals.
The Rothschild talks suggest that we may see something big on the privatization plate in the near future. Belarus authorities already have experience working with Rothschild. In 2009, Rothschild was involved in sale of one of the leading Belarus banks – BPS Bank, which was acquired by Russian Sberbank for $280,7 million. Moscow Times reports:
“We not only want to receive your [price] estimates of privatized companies, we would like to learn a lot from you,” Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said at a meeting with top executive of the financial services group. “It would suit us very well to work with your specialists. If you agreed we could soon delegate several projects and work on them seriously.”
Read the piece at moscowtimes.com.
Olympian tourists: From Minsk, with love
The Vancouver Sun publishes an interview with four Belarusian fans at the 2010 Olympic Games. It’s a great pleasure to see the guys wearing sweaters with the historical Belarusian coat of arms Pahonia on them.
VANCOUVER — Belarus is a small land-locked country sandwiched between Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The population is only 10 million, and mostly centered around the capital, Minsk.
But what it lacks in size, Belarus makes up for in Olympic spirit.
Thursday, Belarus picked up its first two medals of the 2010 games in the men’s and women’s biathalon. The same day, Ilya Kunitski, Pavel Kazlou, Pavel Surkov and Zmicer Kazak arrived in Vancouver to cheer on their country’s athletes.
They were easy to spot, because they were all sporting scarlet red Belarus hockey jerseys.
“This is my first [Olympics],” said Kunitski, 27, who hails from Minsk but now lives in New York.
“I was dreaming about visiting one, and finally my dream came true. It’s [a great] atmosphere. Just being here without being to any events, it’s worth coming. And Vancouver is a beautiful city. It’s our first day in Vancouver but already I can say it’s one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen.”
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