MINSK, 3 March (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has made appointments to the economic team of the government, BelTA has learned.
According to the head of state, the current team can be called “new old one”. After all, many of them worked in the government before the election so voters understood in advance with whom the president would work.
However, the deputy prime ministers will carry more weight in the new government.
“Once again, I would like to outline the guiding principles of work for the future government, which I will insist on. The deputy prime ministers will now have much more weight. The chairman of the government organizes the work of the government, leads government meetings, but in no case makes any one-man decisions and he does not dominate over the members of the government, especially the deputy prime ministers,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.
Nikolai Snopkov is put in charge of the economic team of the government he was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister.
The head of state also appointed Artur Karpovich as Minister of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade; Dmitry Kiyko as Minister of Taxes and Duties; Yuri Seliverstov as Finance Minister, Yuri Chebotar as Economy Minister, Kirill Zalessky as Communications and Informatization Minister, and Dmitry Matusevich as Chairman of the State Property Committee.
“Nikolai Snopkov will be in charge of this team,” Aleksandr Lukashenko explained. “He already had a lot of powers, but it was due to his personal qualities, that he was able to defend his lines of work, his competencies. But I want everyone to hear it, and first of all, those sitting here.
On economic growth and investment
Speaking about the tasks facing the economic team of the government, Aleksandr Lukashenko first of all emphasized the need to attract investments. “Economic growth, which is primarily about investment, remains the main task for this team and Nikolai Gennadievich [First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Snopkov] personally,” the president said.
He recalled the One District - One Project initiative, which has gained traction. “I am ready to see new ideas based on this initiative. We need to raise more investments. We expect investments to increase by about a third over the five-year period,” the head of state remarked.
According to him, special attention should be paid to key investment projects, like the China-Belarus Industrial Park Great Stone, the Belarusian National Biotechnology Corporation, and the BelGee passenger car production factory. “I hope that new ones will be launched,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added.
“We must definitely come to grips with the outflow of people from the regions. This outflow should be stopped. The wage gap should be reduced. People's wages in the regions should approximately be the same as in Minsk,” the president demanded.
On small and medium-sized business
One of the most important tasks facing the economic team of the government is the complete implementation of the law on the transfer of individual entrepreneurs into small businesses. “This is what [First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai] Snopkov and the group he heads insisted on. By 2030, the SME sector should make up about half of the country’s economy. This is also his proposal,” the head of state said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also places high hopes on the effective introduction of the institute of the self-employed. According to the president, the main task here is to make the entire labor market transparent.
About digitalization
Aleksandr Lukashenko instructed Nikolai Snopkov to coordinate the creation of interacting information systems and centralization of data. At the same time, the head of state demanded to define what digitalization is.
“We use these terms digitalization, robotization, informatization and artificial intelligence, but we cannot even distinguish between these concepts, let alone act on them. Two or three people may have some grasp of the matter. We make these decisions and press forward never looking back to see whether people, society are following us or not. Therefore, we need to be ahead in these areas, first of all, in artificial intelligence and to understand what it is and clearly know what we need today and what we do not need today, what we can do without,” the president said.
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