MINSK, 1 February (BelTA) – Deputy Economy Minister Dmitry Yaroshevich told the Belarus 1 TV channel the details of a large discussion of the social and economic development program for 2021-2025 and pointed out the main points of growth for Belarus' GDP, BelTA informs.
Strong regions are one of the priorities of the social and economic development program. “We know what is needed to make the regions come roaring back. These are, of course, production facilities, social infrastructure. We have everything in place for that: both ideas and legislation that has been tested in Orsha District. Now we are working to extend certain legal norms of this decree and this experiment to other regions. In any case, preferences will be in place,” Dmitry Yaroshevich said.
The strong points of the regions are labor resources. Therefore, one of the essential tasks is to keep young people in the regions. “We see that strong incentives are needed for that,” he added. In other words, first of all, it is necessary to create jobs with decent wages in the regions.
“Modern manufacturing industry does not require a great amount of human resources. We need compact, small and hi-tech production facilities with high added value. This is one of the main areas of focus for us,” Dmitry Yaroshevich added.
According to him, more than 800 projects to open up new production facilities in the next five years are under consideration. The service sector should become an important point of growth. This pertains not only to consumer services, but also business and financial services. “The main thing is that GDP is expected to grow by 21.5%. About 9.7 percentage points of this growth will be generated by the service sector, and the rest by agriculture and manufacturing,” the deputy minister said. In addition, according to the calculations of the Economy Ministry, the production of equipment, vehicles and pharmaceuticals is predicated to grow faster than other industries.
Dmitry Yaroshevich expressed hope that domestic business will scale up and act as an investor. “Of course, foreign investors are always welcome when they are socially responsible businesses that seek to gain a foothold here and act responsibly in relation to our citizens and the territory,” the deputy minister said. Of course, to make it happen, it is necessary to create comfortable conditions, which also depends on the work of local authorities.
Dmitry Yaroshevich stressed that after the Belarusian People's Congress the program will be finalized taking into account the proposals put forward during the congress. “We will try to finalize it as soon as possible, within two months, so that it will be adopted in the spring,” he concluded.
