Grodno Region Executive Committee summed up the results of the regional contest «Best Regional Entrepreneur of the Year» on March 28, 2008. Among the contest’s winners and laureates there are some FEZ «Grodnoinvest» resident-enterprises:

• Joint enterprise «Zov-Plita» ltd. – the 1st position in the nomination «Attraction of Foreign Investments»;
• Joint enterprise «Zov-LenEVROMEBEL» ltd. – the 1st position in the nomination «Organization of Work in the Sphere of Consumer Goods Production»;
• Open joint-stock company «Grodno Building Materials Plant» – laureate in the nomination «Organization of New Workplaces»;
• Open joint-stock company «Edem» – the 1st position in the nomination «Best Exporting Enterprise»;
• Foreign enterprise «Top Comfort» ltd. – laureate in the nomination «Attraction of Foreign Investments»;
• Open joint-stock company «Grodnorajagroservis» – laureate in the nomination «Organization of Production of Industrial Goods».

Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus № 42 of January 28, 2008 «On Introducing Amendments and Additions to Some Decrees of the President of the Republic of Belarus Relating to the Activity of Free Economic Zones» came into effect on April 1st, 2008. The edict contains several significant provisions aimed at further developing of the free economic zones, creation of favorable conditions for the attraction of national and foreign investments.

In particular the Edict provides the following conditions:

• guarantees of legal regulations unchangeability for FEZ residents during a seven-year period;
• fixation of a new criteria of not less than 1mln. Euro investments volume for the implementation of an investment project;
• simplification of the procedure of FEZ residents registration. From April 1st, 2008 the administrations of the free economic zones have the authority to take the decision about the registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs as FEZ residents;
• fixation of the decreasing ratio 0,02 to the basic rate of the annual rent payment for the land-plots situated on the territory of the free economic zones and granted to FEZ residents for the implementation of investment projects;
• state assistance in financing of construction and development of the necessary infrastructure in case of the implementation of major investment projects (more than 10 mln. Euro) by FEZ residents;
• simplification of the procedure of forming of the list of import substitution goods produced by FEZ residents. The products of FEZ residents produced in the course of three years are guaranteed to be included into the annual list of import-substitution goods produced by FEZ residents and imported to the domestic market, if these goods are included in that list during the first year of their production;
• exclusion of the necessity to prepare by the Government the list of goods that can not be included into the range of free customs zone products and  a number of productions the location of which in free customs zones is limited or banned;
• Exemption from the real estate tax for buildings located in FEZ (also unfinished construction buildings) and from taxes on vehicles.

A new generation narrow-width flexographic machine Nikelman 250 MultiTwin 8+8 IR-UV was introduced in one of our resident-enterprises – close corporation «Bigan» on April 9, 2008. The company is the only Belarusian producer of multilayer covering for meat industry. The machinery allows to apply images at the speed of 80 m per minute and to print 8 colors at a pass on both sides of the covering. It also secures double-sided control and drying and cooling UV-system.

The multilayer covering made in Grodno is used by 60 Belarusian enterprises working in the field of food industry and has considerably substituted the imports. The machinery capacity allows to satisfy the demand of the Belarusian market for multilayer covering completely.