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Lukashenko ready to grant all kinds of powers to executives in agriculture
GLUBOKOYE, 18 March (BelTA) – The agricultural sector and food exporters should take advantage of emerging opportunities, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he hosted a meeting in Glubokoye on 18 March to discuss the development of agricultural clusters in Vitebsk Oblast, BelTA has learned.
The decree concerning the creation and functioning of such clusters was adopted two years ago, in February 2020. According to officials, certain results have been achieved in this field: the debt burden has reduced, issues related to material and technical equipment are being resolved, large-scale construction of new agricultural facilities has been launched (yet, many of them are still at the completion stage or are not used to the full of their capacity), a number of steps are being taken to resolve personnel problems. Nevertheless, many problems remain. First of all, there is no adequate financial return, the capacities of a number of enterprises are underutilized. In this situation, officials assure that a little more time is needed to get appreciable results. For this it is necessary to complete what has been started and fully utilize the commissioned facilities, as well as to resolve a number of financial and personnel issues.
“We must see progress this year. If you want some additional rights or powers, take any, as Yeltsin [the first President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin] once said: ‘take as much as you can handle’,” the Belarusian leader stressed.
He noted that Vitebsk Oblast will be struggling without the agricultural industry. “But the industry, too, needs to take some action!" the head of state said.
“Now the world is breaking down, being redistributed. We, on the other hand, are discussing these mundane things here,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “The most important thing is to give executives the right to make decisions, including in the field of HR. Things are tough now. Yet it is a time of great opportunities. Russia is open. Here we have a great chance. The money is good. Does the Russian ruble suit us? It does. We can buy fuel, raw materials, resources. There will be no better time for agriculture.”
The president is confident that Belarusian food products will be in great demand in Ukraine as well: “The war in Ukraine will end sooner or later. Everything is destroyed there. No one knows if they will be able to grow any harvest this year. Ukrainians, 40 million people, need to be fed. We had $7 billion in mutual trade with Ukraine before. Go ahead and sell there.”
In general, the Belarusian president believes that such clusters are feasible. In fact, it is not a new thing. As a rule, such manufacturing, processing and trading clusters yield positive financial results: “Setting up manufacturing and processing clusters is the first step. Then you add trading networks and get a viable system that should have already yielded results.”
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