“The Tower of Minsk” project. Photo by mk.by

Austrians go to Minsk

Austrian VIH hotel company signed a contract to manage the hotel in the Tower of Minsk - the future largest building in the capital of Belarus, which is planned to be built by 2014.

The Tower of Minsk is one of the most ambitious construction projects in recent years in Belarus. Construction of the Minsk skyscraper is planned near the National Library, just behind the office building "Alexandrov Passage". The total area of the new building will be 100.000 square meters. The Tower of Minsk will be a complex of three towers of 166, 162 and 57 meters in height. As reported by the Austrian edition Austrian Times, the general contractor for construction of the tower will be the Austrian company Habau Hoch-und Tiefbaugesellschaft m.b.H.

As for the new hotel, it will be located on several floors of the future tower. The new hotel will offer "business" services. Under the plan, the hotel will be designed for 280 rooms.

The new hotel will be one of the largest business hotels in Minsk. It will include a large conference room of 2900 square meters, as well as a spa complex, which is located in an area of 2000 square meters.

According to the VIH head Rudolf Tucek interview for the Austrian Times, Minsk is gaining an increasingly prominent role in the economies of Eastern Europe in the last few years.

Tucek assured that the introduction of a new hotel will serve as an indicator of the beginning of growth in the hotel market in Minsk.

At the same time the Austrian Times notes that Austria's leading economists have expressed concern about the stability of the Austrian financial market, as more banks offer deals in the financially unstable markets of countries in Eastern Europe.

Fears of Austrian economists are quite understandable in connection with the recent events that took place in Minsk last weekend. On December 19, 2010 in Minsk were held elections for the President of the Republic of Belarus. The official data processed by the Belarusian Central Election Commission showed the victory of Alexander Lukashenko. Nevertheless, in the evening of the 19th December on the streets of Minsk appeared from 20 to 50 thousand people, who demanded the revision of the election results. This action was suppressed by the authorities. Hundreds of people were arrested. Currently, the election results are not recognized by the representatives of the EU and the U.S. Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger expressed the regret of the fact that the Belarusian authorities “have not used the chance that the elections were”.

Date: 25/12/2010