MINSK, 11 February (BelTA) – The country's economy should develop in an evolutionary way, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he addressed the 6th Belarusian People's Congress in Minsk on 11 February, BelTA has learned.
The head of state noted that the Belarusian economy was predicted to collapse. In fact, the GDP declined by less than 1% in 2020. The key parameters in 2020 were at the level of 2019.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also responded to criticism that the Belarusian economy allegedly froze in development. "First of all, its structure has changed, new industries have emerged and are growing, the share of the non-state sector has grown to 50%. Secondly, traditional production facilities have undergone large-scale modernization. Work is now underway to ensure maximum return on investment. The economy does not tolerate revolutions or drastic reforms. Evolutionary development is the way," the Belarusian leader is sure.
The president believes that Belarus should focus on the industries with highly-qualified workforce. The head of state cited the missile industry as an example. “We have developed the Polonez missile. We set this goal and we fulfilled it. Now we are working on a new missile with a longer range. We have tested a couple of such missiles, and we see that we still need to work on them,” he explained.
The plans for the next five years include the development of large industrial clusters. Large companies will be joined by small and medium-sized enterprises that will produce necessary components. “This will be a big step forward in import substitution. Let us develop the sectors where we have good expertise and competences. We are modernizing old production facilities to develop new industries on their basis,” said the head of state.
