September 22, the Minsk International Educational Centre (11 Gazety "Pravda" Avenue) hosted a conference "Partnership of State and Private Sector – a Prerequisite of Social and Economic Growth." The organizers were the UNDP Project "Promoting Enterprise Activity through Public-Private Partnerships in Belarus" and the Ministry of Economy of Belarus. Participants of the conference were officials of the Republic's and local state bodies of management, MPs and public figures, scientists and representatives of international organizations.

The major objective of the conference was to promote, based on the analysis of the global experiences and guidelines, set forth in the Report of the UN Secretary General (the Commission on Private Sector and Entrepreneurship Development), development of small and medium enterprises in Belarus through drafting particular proposals to the Government, and to pool together the efforts of all the interested national and international bodies in implementing these proposals.

The goals of the conference were as follows:

• Presentation and discussion of the Report of the UN Commission on Private Sector and Entrepreneurship Development;
• Discussion of perspective lines of cooperation of the UNDP with the Government of Belarus, other national and international organizations in entrepreneurship development in the country for the coming 5 years.

The following topics were brought to the discussion:

• International experiences, lessons learnt and new approaches in the state policy in the area of entrepreneurship;
• Role of private sector in economic development, elimination of administrative barriers in entrepreneurship through cooperation of the state and private sector;
• Perspective directions of joint activities of the UNDP and the Government of Belarus, other national and international organizations in entrepreneurship development.

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