Tourist Mosaic of Belarus

422Minsk Regionthe republic and with other countries. Currently, Minsk re-gion is one of the most economically developed regions of the state. The main factors, influencing the region’s socio-economic development, are its extremely favorable geographical position and natural resources.The highway Gomel–Minsk–Vilnius–Klaipeda–Kali-ningrad, passing through the territory of Minsk region, provides access from the regions of Eastern Ukraine and Central Russia to the ports of Latvia, Lithuania and Rus-sia. The road from Brest to the Russian border via Minsk is a part of the Pan-European Corridor II, connecting Germany, Poland, Belarus and Russia (Berlin–Warsaw–Minsk–Moscow). The rail network of the region (total length: 8,808 kilometers) is also convenient for the tran-sit of passengers and goods. The most important rail-way hubs in the region are the cities of Minsk and Molo-dechno. Minsk region is located in the central part of the Re-public of Belarus. This is the only region of the country, which borders on all the regions of Belarus and has no borders with other countries. It is home to 15.3 % of the population of Belarus (on January 1, 2010 – 1,418,900 people, including 787,400 people in city set-tlements). The center of the region is the capital city of Belarus – Minsk.The total territory of the region, together with Minsk, is 40,200 square kilometers, or 20 % of the territory of Belarus. It is crossed by the most important transport corridors, connecting the countries of Western Europe with the East, the Black Sea regions and the Baltic States. An extensive network of roads connects Minsk region with almost all the settlements of the region and the coun-try. Consequently, the region has a lot of opportunities for building strong economic ties with all the regions of Minsk RegionMinsk RegionThe Svisloch River in MinskCatholic Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Vileyka422