Meeting with Council of Ministers

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko held a meeting with the Council of Ministers on 19 August.

"It is a regular meeting with the participation of interested parties, members of the government and governors," Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the beginning of the meeting.

Several important issues in the areas of economy and social policy were put up for the head of state's consideration, and the first of them was the simplification of procedures for housing construction and lending.

"As we always say, Belarus is a state for the people. Therefore, all decisions should be made in the interests of the people. One of our priority tasks has been and remains the provision of housing for people. A roof over one's head is important for any person. This is especially for a young family. It is their confidence in the future," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko earlier instructed the government to take a comprehensive approach to improving the legislation in the area. He stated that the statistics on housing commissioning has been negative for the second year in a row. "Why is it so?" the President asked.

In analysts' reports, one of the first reasons for the outflow of personnel from small villages is the lack of opportunity to buy their own housing or at least move into comfortable and well-furnished rental housing.

"Today a new impetus should be given to housing construction in rural areas, including individual houses, construction of rental housing by enterprises for their employees. The government has put forward a whole set of innovations: from simplifying the connection to the engineering infrastructure of individual houses to expanding financial support for young families (up to 31 years old)," the President said.

All innovations have been considered by a council of experts, including the Council of the Republic, the State Control Committee, and the Belarus President's Administration. "However, there is no general agreement on the documents," the head of state said.

The head of state asked the architecture and construction minister whether all the proposed measures would really simplify construction procedures, whether the updated legislation would help increase housing construction and how the banking sector would be involved in these procedures, whether the planned support would have sufficient funding.

Speaking of ways of improving transportation infrastructure, the President said that more than a year ago, an investor proposed a single national operator project. The proposal was about creating the single system of all of the country's intelligent transportation systems (toll roads, parking system, weight and dimensional control, and speed cameras).

"The government has been instructed to work out this issue in detail. Obviously, in the public interest. At least, we need it to work better than it does now and make a profit. If we are to carry out digital transformation of the transportation infrastructure, it should be done in the most advanced and convenient way for people," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

He mentioned the problem of parking lots as an example: "Everyone knows that parking lots are in a mess, especially in Minsk. Here, in our most populated city, many people like to park their cars wherever they want. We have paid zones all over the city's center, but still some citizens park their cars there without paying. There are neither payment discipline nor proposals to impose it."

"The key question is: will a single national operator really enhance road and public safety, and be able to improve financial and technological discipline? If so, what amount of investment will be required to implement the project? What is the payback period? Have the future budget revenues been analyzed?" Aleksandr Lukashenko asked.

According to him, there are no clear answers to the questions so. "Therefore, I ask you to report on what benefits the proposed project will bring to the country. How accurate are the investor's economic projections? Or is the main growth factor in his business plan an increase in tariffs?" the President said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also inquired about other ways to save the county's budget funds.

Among the issues on the agenda of the meeting was the cattle loss.

Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that colossal efforts and funds are continuously invested in the agricultural industry of Belarus. Recently, another round of modernization has been launched.

The efforts made have yielded results. There is a positive trend in animal husbandry: this year, the production of milk rose by 6.5%, that of livestock and poultry - by almost 4.5%.

"However, behind these figures there is a frightening number of losses of livestock," the head of state noted. According to the State Control Committee, almost everywhere the main reason is diseases. In just six months, 70,000 head died. Calves from birth to six months old accounted for more than half, almost 40,000.

"This is blatant mismanagement. Back in the day when a peasant lost a cow it was a tragedy. Now, for some reason, we got used to hiding behind regulations and standards. This is wrong!" the head of state critically noted.

The President demanded that there be only one understandable standard - a healthy animal that is kept in good conditions. Then there will be no losses either within or beyond the standard.

The head of state paid special attention to the provision of livestock to dairy complexes, many of which have been built in the country. "Who do they house? If cows, then why is milk yield little?" Aleksandr Lukashenko asked.

During the meeting, the agriculture and food minister reported on the state of affairs in the livestock sector and on the measures to provide dairy complexes with highly productive livestock.

One of the topics raised at the meeting with the head of state was handicraft activities. The President recalled that the law on entrepreneurial activity had been amended this year. Under the new law, artisans made part of the entrepreneurial community.

"According to the government's proposal, one can become an artisan solely according to the list of activities as from 1 October 2024. The list will be drawn up by the government soon," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

Plans are in place to sign a decree to this effect. In this regard, the President asked about the changes and the reasons for their choice, and also wondered whether the changes had been discussed with the population.

"We should pay attention to whether the proposed reforms may create prerequisites for some artisans, whose areas of activity will be removed from the list, to move to the shadow sector," Aleksandr Lukashenko said. The preservation of the cultural heritage of Belarus and the requirement not to lose any rare craft in the course of the reforms were among the tasks outlined by the President.

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