24 June 2003
Santa Bremor Brest comes out as biggest investor in Free Economic Zone "Brest"
The Belarusian-German Santa Bremor fish-processing company is the biggest investor in the Free Economic Zone "Brest," having spent $19 million on its manufacturing facilities there, Nikolai Krivetsky, head of the FEZ administration, said at a national investment seminar held in this regional center on June 19-20.
According to Mr. Krivetsky, Santa Bremor processes 2.5 million out of 6 million tons of capelin caviar produced in the
world every year.
Santa Bremor supplies its products to Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Israel and Lebanon and has partnership
ties with many companies in Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Russia, he said.
The company operates four plants, three of these involved in salting, smoking and packaging herring filets, occupying a
total area of 8,000 square meters. Its range of products includes about 100 items made of Atlantic and Pacific herring, including pates, rolls and salads.
The Belarusian-Czech furniture maker Involux has invested the second largest amount, more than $8 million, said Mr. Krivetsky.
"Every dollar spent by the government on the development of the zone has yielded $17 in investment…. In China, investment never even reached half of the government's expenditure in the first five years," he noted. However, speakers at the seminar noted that Belarus' FEZs so far have not met the government's high expectations, although 237 new enterprises have been started there, 17,000 new jobs have been created, and each dollar spent by the government on their development has yielded ten.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news429.html