Sure it is strange with all this prejudice we have about everything from other nationalities to other professional groups. Many have a picture of Belarus and Minsk and that picture was enhanced on the flight from Frankfurt to Belavian. No ice, no gin, no beer but vodka, whiskey and tomato juice as well as some sort of food that looked like Haggis but tasted worse.”
This is how it is:
- The passport control took two minutes
- Nice taxi drive to the hotel
- Nice hotel – renovated three years ago
- Internet, not broadband speed, but free of charge in the hotel bar
- Beautiful nature on the way into town
- Big, eight lane avenues
- Pretty and colourful houses
- Lots of traffic, large and expensive cars (no Swedish ones, lost market)
- Beautiful women
- Open city with parks
- Nice people
- The city is a mixture between Vienna and Paris, large avenues, big buildings, cafés along the sidewalks, pretty clothes mixed with punk
- Illuminated facades at night
- No military or police
- The best sushi I ever tasted. Hostesses were dressed in kimonos.
- Great dinner
- English is the dominating language in the bar
- Small but nice office
- Cargo Manager (Office Manager), M, approximately 35 years old, fluent in English, better in writing, skilled, solid and takes no risks
- Customer Service Manager, J, approximately 30 years old, almost fluent in English, good in writing, legal degree
- All conversation in English
- Don’t do business with government enterprises – bad payers
- 30 days credit in general
- To obtain financial information from the authorities takes at least one month
- If you don’t get paid, J (our Customer Service Manager) will prepare the court plaint where you will get paid
- Still haven’t had any losses
- Well prepared routines with tax authorities and other authorities will facilitate the transfer of funds. These routines get renewed yearly and are set up between Riga and Minsk. (Involves a lot of paperwork, which means you don’t do it for each single transaction. Every agency set-off is done through Riga.)
- After the difficult start-up, cash flow is OK. Remaining owners started from scratch somewhat unprepared with the wrong partner.
- Not very active in sales, especially not with government. Everything is done with tenders and money on the side.
- Central offices in Minsk, five people of which four are women. Visits airport office tomorrow. Two employees, probably women, one is customs clearance.
- Have all licences required – Ms’ eyes twinkled when he saw the opportunities for 300 containers a month, run today to Belarus via Klaipeda.
- Only 1.4% of the work force in Belarus is employed by foreign companies.
- The state may interfere if a company pays too small salaries as well as too high.
- Among the major international logistics companies, only DHL is represented in Minsk.
- Our contingently future company is one of the largest freight forwarding companies.
- Increase in volume in tonnes and shipments during 2005-2006 has been a little more than 150% and 2006-2007, app 100%. Same increase by air and truck, however, from low levels.
- Number of shipments per forwarding agent is low compared to Western Europe due to the enormous documentation required and above all, the challenges concerning transfer of funds.
- All customs clearance must be marked by numerous stamps.
- If you don’t pay salaries on time, the Managing Director goes to jail. One government enterprise didn’t get enough funds from the government to pay salaries. The Managing Director was advised to borrow money in a bank and then sue the owners, ie the government.
- The government is calculating to double the number of passengers and the volume of goods at the Minsk airport.
- M is already working on an “aggressive” expansion rate.
Finally, I must reemphasize the city. It is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. I have not been to Singapore, but I doubt it is any cleaner. There is no graffiti or a piece of paper anywhere.