Belarus: Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has ordered the Homel Regional Executive Committee to cancel an investment agreement under which Iran's Azarab Industries Company was to build a cement plant in the Vetka district.

Under the agreement, signed in May 2010, the Iranian company was to invest at least US$200m dollars in the project and complete the plant within three years. The Belarusian authorities hoped that the plant would be put into operation within 24 months. The investor was also to be granted the right to develop two chalk deposits near Vetka for a period of 50 years and export up to 70% of the output of the 1Mt/yr plant.

Uladzimir Dvornik, head of the Homel Regional Executive Committee, said in March 2011 that although the first stage of the project was to be completed on 7 February 2011, Azarab Industries Company had not submitted an implementation report. Instead, in January 2011, the regional government received a draft lease agreement for land plots from the company, which contained provisions contravening Belarusian regulations. In March 2011 the Homel Regional Executive Committee sent a letter to the Iranian company to assure it of a favourable decision on its suggestions with regard to a fixed lease rate for 50 years.

"There has yet been neither reply nor action from the Iranian company, which does not contribute to the implementation of the investment project," said Dvornik. The regional government is now looking for new investors for the plant.