SVISLOCH DISTRICT, 24 June (BelTA) - Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko talked with residents of the town of Svisloch after a meeting about the Grodno Oblast development prospects held in in the town of Svisloch on 24 June, BelTA has learned.
"Did you think I wouldn't come to you?" Aleksandr Lukashenko asked.
"No, we were waiting for you," the locals replied.
"Wherever I visit the pushcha, I always think of Svisloch, about the need of traveling there. The district is on the outskirts of the country and the situation is not easy there. But it is always on my radar," the president said.
The head of state told th locals about his trip, the enterprises he visited and about the results of the meeting. "We want to carry out large woodworking projects here. Frankly speaking, I am very cautious about the use of forest resources (this, like land, is our wealth), but I see that we are underperforming on this front. A lot of wood is not recycled on time, it overdries. We have a lot of forests on the swamps, in lowland places. No one wants to harvest timber there either," Alexander Lukashenko said.
Some 20% of the local population are ethnic Poles. In this regard, the president once again touched on the relations between peoples in the context of political differences with neighboring countries."I asked the local authorities to treat the Polish minority with care. People are not guilty of anything," he said.
