ORSHA, 8 July (BelTA) – The program on developing Orsha District has produced an effect. Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko made the statement before an offsite session of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers on 8 July, BelTA has learned.
As part of the program Orsha District was supposed to receive unprecedented support measures, which were designed to stimulate growth across the board. “Today we will have to take a look at how the scheme has worked and at what opportunities were used at the local level. There are certain results: 163 measures and projects have been implemented within half the allocated time. As much as Br1.4 billion has been appropriated for them or 80% of the target sum for 2018-2020,” the head of government said.
Roman Golovchenko remarked that not all the projects are implemented on time. Objective and subjective reasons are at play. “There is definitely an effect from implementing the development program. As many as 82% of the measures and projects, which were supposed to be implemented in the last two years, have been implemented,” he said. “We will discuss every project to unearth problems and solve them.”
According to the head of government, individual projects and measures of subprograms on the production sector and agribusiness as well as forestry industry can hardly be called a success. Projects in the production sector need a lot of finance and the money does not get fully spent. The main projects in the forestry industry are behind the schedule. Those include investment projects at Orshaagroprommash, a tinned meat plant, and Orsha Tools Plant.
“One project [to start making modern metal-cutting and auxiliary tools using innovative technological processes] at Orsha Tools Plant is behind schedule. There are many reasons to blame. The project is not a simple upgrade of the manufacturing process, acquisition of new equipment or several machine tools. It is a serious project with a world-level company Walter. It is designed to organize the production of high-quality equipment in Belarus. It took a long time to reach an agreement with the German partner. They had been thinking for a long time whether they wanted to participate in the project or not. The coronavirus pandemic had an effect as well. The timeframe was shifted. We've set things right with the Industry Ministry and the management of the enterprise. We are now confident that the enterprise will implement it on schedule – in 2023,” Roman Golovchenko explained.
The prime minister also visited one of the facilities being built in accordance with the Orsha District development program. It is a robotized dairy farm for 2,000 head of milking herd near the village of Churilovo. “It is an innovative facility with unique technologies. It was commissioned on 30 June. Today we discussed how we will recoup the investments, meet parameters of the business plan because a lot has been invested and we expect considerable returns. I expressed concerns about personnel training and the observance of technologies,” the head of government added.
An offsite session of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers took place in Orsha on 8 July to discuss the realization of the program on Orsha District development till 2023. Participants of the session discussed problems, possible adjustment of the program without exceeding the initially specified timeframe and financial volumes.
