DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS – STRATEGIC PLATFORM FOR COOPERATION WITH BORDER REGIONS OF UKRAINE

The article considers the problems of entrepreneurship development in the Republic of Belarus in the context of cross-border cooperation with Ukraine. Interaction between the border regions of Belarus and Ukraine is currently carried out in the free trade regime with exceptions and restrictions in the CIS free trade zone. The course taken by Ukraine to minimize participation in the CIS, and subsequently the supposed withdrawal from this integration association, will lead to the need to intensify bilateral cooperation between Belarus and Ukraine, to form a new mechanism for cooperation between the two countries. The SWOT-analysis of the interaction of small and medium-sized businesses in the border regions of Belarus and Ukraine was conducted. Strategic directions for the development of small business in Belarus and its cooperation with the border regions of Ukraine were proposed. They are the following: the creation of a permanent supranational body coordinating the development of small and medium-sized enterprises; the allocation in budgets of all levels of funds for the development of entrepreneurship in the amount of at least 25% of the funds provided for the development of industry and agriculture; implementation of programs aimed at creating logistics centers in the border areas; the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises in neighboring areas that produce similar products, with the development of intra-firm cooperation; setting a zero rate of import customs duty on imported technological equipment, regardless of its customs value and country of origin