MINSK, 25 December (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko briefly summed up results of the Year of Native Land campaign as he visited the Minsk Children's Infectious Diseases Hospital on 25 December, BelTA has learned.
The head of state pointed out that a considerable amount of work had been done in the past three years, with many small populated localities undergoing noticeable renovations. However, this work should not end due to the end of the Year of Native Land campaign. “Don't forget about the places you grew up in. It is very important,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.
The president assured that the beautification and accomplishment of small populated localities in Belarus will continue. “We haven't abandoned large villages. We don't even think about abandoning small isolated farmsteads that show little promise,” he said. “At least we've gone from Minsk to agrotowns. Now we have to finish repairing the roads that lead to the agrotowns. We will definitely accomplish it over the course of five years in order to build normal two-lane motorways.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko reminded that in the past he had repeatedly raised the matter of the value of land and land plots outside big cities and had encouraged all the residents of Belarus to buy such land plots and vacant houses. “So that you and your kids could just walk on the ground on Saturdays and Sundays. Many say that walking barefoot on grass or soil drains bad energy into the soil,” he explained.
The president also emphasized that in the past the government made the right choice when it decided against private land ownership. “In the past I was criticized for not allowing trade in land plots,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted. “If we had handed out the land, we would starve this year. Since we didn't, we have a great harvest this year and we will be fully supplied with Belarusian food.”
“There is no need to destroy our system. We've suffered to build it over the course of a quarter of the century. It is a good and normal system. It will be in demand all over the world,” Aleksandr Lukashenko summed it up.
