As part of its REFORUM project, BISS has conducted an opinion poll of representatives of the business community (hereinafter entrepreneurs), which studied their attitude to reforms in our country.
The main conclusions of the study are as follows:
Representatives of the business community believe it necessary to put in place reforms, primarily economic reforms, followed by reforms in the system of state administration. The least relevant area for reforms is the social security system, according to business. This pattern turned out to be quite well predictable for the preferences of the Belarusian business community.
· Unlike Belarusian population at large, which believes that reforms should aim at enhancing the role of the state, Belarusian business views reforms as deregulation. Business appears to share the same preferences and priorities with representatives of civil society and even state officials, who also call for a reduction in the role of the state and the degree of state control in the areas subject to reforms.
· Private business is ready to be involved in reforms in the country; however, the intellectual and expert resources of business are not used to the full extent: there is still huge potential for the engagement between business and the state.
· Entrepreneurs and state officials differ on the effectiveness of the interaction between business and the authorities. Most representatives of the business community do not believe that this engagement yields results, whereas most officials are certain that the engagement between the state authorities and business has been established; however, its mechanisms require improvements.
· The priority areas for reforms are the same for representatives of the state authorities and business (economics, state administration); however, the vision of reforms differs.