A presentation of the UNDP Regional Report on “Business Solutions to Poverty - How inclusive business models create opportunities for all in emerging Europe and Central Asia” took place today at the National Press Center.Inclusive business models presume involvement of people in need as employees, manufacturers and entrepreneurs from the supply side as well as consumers or clients from the demand side. Such models provide for arranging mutually beneficial contacts and relations between businesses and poor people.
The Report presented today is the first one, where the concept of inclusive business models is applied to Europe and Central Asia region. The Report has been prepared based on 19 dedicated (specially commissioned) cases conducted in countries of the region (including Belarus), containing specific examples of profitable business, which at the same time positively impacted population and environment.
– I believe that this Report will serve as an advocacy tool for private businesses, government agencies, civil society organizations and other development actors to work together to encourage growth and higher standards of living in Belarus, – noted Mr. Antonius Broek, UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus.
The Belarusian experience in providing medical services to people in need was presented by Mr. Vladimir Karpovich, the Joint LLC “Mobile TeleSystems” Director General. Within the framework of the UN Global Compact the MTS Company initiated a project on promotion of telemedicine (“distant medical services”) in small towns and rural areas. Thus a mobile equipment complex “Cardian-PM” has been procured and installed at the Ratomka district hospital to ensure “mobile” transmission of electro cardiograms for expert analysis to the Minsk central district hospital.
– Business is quite actively developing in the capital and regional centers of Belarus, which, at the moment, is not typical about small towns and rural areas, – stated Alexander Likhachevsky, Director of Department on Entrepreneurship of the Belarus Ministry of Economy. – It is a lengthy process, which would require both, creation of infrastructure and changing perception of promotion and development of entrepreneurship, pursued by people in the field. So, the activities carried out by the UNDP in order to develop private businesses in remote areas contribute to implementation of plans that the government envisaged in this sphere.
For further information, please refer to Ms. Liudmila Istomina, UNDP Programme Analyst, via tel. (017) 227-48-76, or Mr. Vladislav Khilkevich, UNDP Communications Associate, tel. (017) 227-38-17.