By the Decision of the Council of Ministers of December 31, 2002 # 1850 The Rules of the Road Traffic was adopted.

The new Rules of the Road Traffic were drafted in accordance with the Law On Road Traffic and shall come into force from July 1, 2003.

On January 13, 2003 the Decision of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus # 23 and the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus # 2 On Floatation of the Stocks and Bonds of the Foreign Issuers in the Territory of the Republic of Belarus as well as Stocks and Bonds of the Belorussian Issuers in the Territory of the Foreign Countries was adopted.

The Decision allows floatation of the stocks and bonds of foreign issuers in statutory procedure in the territory of the Republic of Belarus as well as stocks and bonds of the Belarusian issuers in territories of foreign countries.

By the Decision of the Administration of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus of December 26, 2002 # 251 The Regulations of the Using the Foreign Currency in Cash by Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs in the Territory of the Republic of Belarus was approved.

The Regulations impose the unified procedure of using foreign currency in cash by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs (both residents of the Republic of Belarus) in the territory of the Republic of Belarus.

The Regulations itemize all the cases when economical entities shall have the right to receive the foreign currency in cash and itemize the matters on which the foreign currency in cash can be distributed to the economic entities by the authorized bank. In other cases reception and distribution of the foreign currency in cash can be exercised in the presence of the permission of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus that can be issued to economical entity under its application with stated grounds of need for reception of such permission and with enclosure of the copies of the documents confirming validity of the currency transaction.

The Regulations shall come into force from the 1^st of March 2003.

On the 20^th of January, 2003 the Decision of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus # 59 On Establishing the Rate of the Minimal Wage was adopted.

The Decision establishes monthly rate of the minimal wage equal to 40 670 rubles and rate of the payment by the hour equal to 242 rubles from the 1^st of January 2003.

By the Decision of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of January 16, 2003 # 2 there were alterations and amendments introduced to The Explanations on Rates of the Income Tax and Procedure of its Calculation approved by the Order of the State Tax Committee of the Republic of Belarus of March 23, 1999 # 46.

Decision states in new edition the rates of the income tax in numerical form and prescribes that these rates shall be applied to incomes received in the year 2003.

By the Decision of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of December 30, 2002 # 108 The Instruction on Peculiarities of Taxation of the Resident of the Free Economic Zone Brest was approved.

The Instruction itemizes taxes and other obligatory payments to the budget which are to be paid by the residents of the free economic zone Brest and clarifies the peculiarities of calculation and payment of the profit tax, value added tax and other taxes and duties.

By the Decision of the Committee on Science and Technologies by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus of January 10, 2003 # 1 The Regulations of Prolongation of the Term of Validity of Registration of the Trademark (Service Mark) were approved. The Regulations are duplicating the principles of the Law On Trademarks (Service Marks) which defines the procedure of prolongation of the term of validity of the trademark and contains the pattern of the application on prolongation of the term of validity of the trademark registration.