The joint project of the United Nations Development Program and the Belarusian Government “Fostering the socio–economic policy dialogue through the Belarus Economic Journal” was launched in March. The expected duration of the project is three years. The implementing agency is the Belarusian State Economic University and its Rector, Mr V.N. Shimov will be the Project National Coordinator. According to the participants, the new project is primarily aimed at enhancing comprehensive scientific analysis of the current social and economic trends and at building up a theoretical platform that would facilitate dynamic development of the country in the new economic context.

The establishment of the Belarus Economic Journal (BEJ) in 1997 became an important step in the development of the national scientific school. BEJ publishes analytical materials on the transformation progress, the findings of fundamental and applied research on the strategy of economic reforms and structural upgrading of industry, agricultural sector and services. A due attention is given to the studies of various aspects of sustainable development of the country's economy and social sector toward the integration into the global economy. During six years the Belarus Economic Journal has become a tribune for leading researchers–economists and professionals from different countries including Belarus, Russia, France, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania…. Among the BEJ subscribers are ministries and government agencies, MPs, leading libraries, universities, local authorities, scientific and research centers and institutes and foreign embassies.

Since the establishment, the journal has been supported within the framework of the UNDP integrated projects thus strengthening the BEJ capacity building. At present the Belarus Economic Journal has a solid image of a leading research and practical periodical in Belarus. This opened a possibility for using its potential for fostering a policy dialogue and organizing different events under its brand name. Therefore, an independent project was initiated with the Belarus Economic Journal being its central component.

The new joint project of the UNDP and the Government of Belarus will ensure publication of the Belarus Economic Journal on a regular basis and will involve the organization of the relevant workshops, round tables and conferences under the BEJ framework. Besides, it is intended to set up the project web–site which will be used for maintaining an ongoing dialogue and feedback with broad audience and organizing electronic discussion forums. The forum reviews will be regularly published in the journal.

The project is intended to give a special support to young researchers, post–graduate students and those working for doctor's degree conducting research in socio–economic and related fields. It is therefore expected to establish a monitoring of completed studies, to organize a contest of young researchers' works covering specific subjects. It is also planned to organize annual conferences — a kind of presentation of works prepared by the young elite of the country — with subsequent publication of the best papers in the Belarus Economic Journal. It is expected that these efforts would contribute to the growth of scientific potential and would increase the respective demand. In their turn, policy–makers and government officials involved in the formulation of the national development concept will get an opportunity to use scientific and practical materials published in the journal and presented on the web–site as a key source of information about economic transformations, the theory and practical implementation of reforms in Belarus and other transition economies. As expected, this would facilitate the adoption of more efficient measures on reforming the country's economy.

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