Vladimir Semashko said the fund would be similar to Russia's Stabilization Fund, established to accumulate windfall profits from high oil prices and hold back inflation by sterilizing the influx of petrodollars, and it would draw on various sources, including profits from state enterprises.
"We have highly profitable companies owned by the state, which manages their profits. Their surplus profits are used for other goals."
The deputy premier said the creation of the fund would be dependent on the price of energy imports from neighboring Russia steadily increasing. "Under any price increase scenario, even if it will be 11%, the fund will be set up."
The former Soviet republic has enjoyed significantly subsidized prices for natural gas from Russia - at $46.7 per 1,000 cubic meters it currently pays well below the price Gazprom charges other consumers - but the Russian energy giant has said it will seek a substantial increase in the future.
Gazprom is in talks with Belarus' Beltransgaz to take a stake in the pipeline company. The Russian giant has failed so far to gain control over the Belarusian pipeline network, which is widely seen as a condition for preserving the price subsidies.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko dismissed suggestions Monday that his country was seeking to maintain friendship with Russia to continue enjoying subsidized energy prices.
