A number of foreign companies have set up joint ventures in Belarus to take advantage of its location, its educated (and relatively inexpensive) work force, and its lack of serious ethnic problems. By mid-1995, Belarus had 1,745 joint ventures registered, but only some 30 percent of these were active. Most partners came from Poland, Germany, North America, and Austria. These joint ventures produced only 2 percent of total Belarusian output and employed only 0.4 percent of the total workforce.
Data as of June 1995