Legal regulation of investment

Belarus encourages and protects foreign investments both on the national and international levels. Belarus is a party to the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States of 1965 (the ICSID Convention or Washington Convention), Convention Establishing the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency of 1985, Convention on Cooperation in the Sphere of Investment Activities of 1993 (Ashgabat Convention), and Convention on the Protection of the Rights of the Investor of 1997.
Guarantees of foreign investors’ rights are also stipulated in the bilateral agreements: today there are about 60 agreements on encouragement and mutual protection of investments, and about 50 agreements on avoidance of double taxation.
Investment relations are also regulated on the national level. The central place here belongs to the Investment Code of the Republic of Belarus, which covers almost all the issues on investment activities exercised by both residents and non-residents of the Republic of Belarus. According to the Investment Code, foreign investments may have any legally stipulated form - from the creation of a legal entity to the acquisition of the property or the rights of property (e.g. share in the authorized fund, concessions, etc.). Foreign investors are entitled to set up companies on the territory of Belarus with any amount of foreign investments engaged and in any legal form. Conditions of business activities of foreign investors and their companies, as well as the self legal regime of foreign investments in Belarus is similar to that stipulated for Belarusian investors.