The Great Stone Industrial Park is the largest joint project of Belarus and China that will span decades. The Park has a strategically unique location – it is situated in the geographical center of Europe, and viewed as a key element within the concept of new Silk Road Economic Belt.
The Great Stone Industrial Park is a territorial unit of Belarus with the status of special economic zone and preferential regime for doing business.
The Park offers easy access to international highways M1/E30 and M4, Minsk international airport (included into the territory of the Park), international railways and the capital of Belarus with its labor and scientific resources. The Park’s tax preferences, free customs regime with the EAEU countries, including Russia and Kazakhstan, give access to a market of about 183 million of customers.
The Great Stone Industrial Park is designed as a truly eco-friendly city for innovative companies with a high export potential, a special legal regime and preferential conditions for doing business.
With the total territory of about 112km2, the Park includes industrial and residential areas with the relevant infrastructure, innovation and financial centers, office premises, trade and entertainment facilities.
One of the advantages of the Park is its location in beautiful, environmentally-friendly territory of a natural reserve. This is why preserving the landscape is one of the most important development tasks.
History of the park
The idea of setting up the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park was put forward in 2010. The idea was first voiced during a visit of China Vice President Xi Jinping (now head of state) to Belarus in March 2010.In October 2011 the governments of Belarus and China signed the agreement to set up the industrial park (it was ratified by the parties and came into force on 30 January 2012). Decree of the Belarusian president No. 253 on the Chinа-Belarus Industrial Park (5 June 2012) established a special legal status of this territory.
The official groundbreaking ceremony heralding the launch of the construction was held on 19 June 2014. The symbolic event was attended by over 50 top managers of the leading companies from all over the world.
On 12 May 2015 during the state visit to Belarus Chinese President Xi Jinping toured the construction site together with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and called it "a pearl of the Silk Road".
The leaders of the two countries put signatures on the general layout of the Great Stone, got familiar with the investment projects of the Park’s first residents who received their park resident licenses in a ceremony featuring the two presidents.
President’s Decree No. 166 (12 May 2017) established a wider scope of incentives and made the Park’s regime of doing business one of the best in the EAEU.
The official groundbreaking ceremony heralding the launch of the construction was held on 19 June 2014. The symbolic event was attended by over 50 top managers of the leading companies from all over the world.
On 12 May 2015 during the state visit to Belarus Chinese President Xi Jinping toured the construction site together with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko and called it "a pearl of the Silk Road".
The leaders of the two countries put signatures on the general layout of the Great Stone, got familiar with the investment projects of the Park’s first residents who received their park resident licenses in a ceremony featuring the two presidents.
President’s Decree No. 166 (12 May 2017) established a wider scope of incentives and made the Park’s regime of doing business one of the best in the EAEU.
From the very beginning, logistics was the Great Stone engine of growth. The project to build a logistic sub-park is being implemented by China Merchants Group, the biggest owner of ports and vessels in the world. Later on in April, 2018 Port of Duisburg, the company operating the Silk Road final point, became a shareholder of the Great Stone Development Company. With it’s participation an intermodal rail terminal will be constructed in the Park. Nowadays the Great Stone Industrial Park is becoming an increasingly important ambitious project and a model project of cooperation between Belarus and China.
Competitive Edge for Business
The list of benefits and incentives offered to the companies-residents of the Great Stone Industrial Park is long and impressive. Among them are the following:
- 10-year tax holiday on corporate income tax (50% discount afterwards);
- 50-year tax holiday on real estate and land tax;
- 5-year tax holiday on dividend tax;
- Customs preferences;
- Grandfather clause (guarantee of unchanged business environment);
- One-stop shop (prompt response to any corporate request online).
Great Stone Industrial Park Residents
Companies from all over the world can join the Great Stone Industrial Park provided they:
- propose a project in mechanical engineering, electronics & telecommunication, fine chemistry, biotechnology, pharmaceutics, new materials, logistics, e-commerce and Big data;
- pledge investment of not less than U.S$500,000 for R&D projects or for those projects that will receive investment within the first three years. In other cases the total amount of declared investments should be not less than U.S.$5 million.
The Great Stone Industrial Park will also be engaged in research and development. Plans are in place to build a new innovation center by the end of 2020 to support start-ups. Moreover, a special program called Iskra has been launched to support financially promising projects.
The Great Stone now:
- 68 companies from 16 countries registered as the Park residents;
- named the Eastern European Industrial Project of the Year by the EuropaProperty agency (2019);
- recognized the best Belt and Road initiative project in Central, Eastern Europe by Asiamoney Magazine (2019);
- made it into the FDi Free Zones of the Year 2019 according to Financial Times;
- received FEMOZA Awards 2019 in the Fastest Growing Industrial Park nomination as the world’s fastest-growing special economic zone according to the World Free and Special Economic Zones Federation (FEMOZA).
