Belarusian People’s Congress

Mikhail Myasnikovich said: “Frankly speaking, people’s expectations concerning the fifth Belarusian People’s Congress are great. The congress is not some run-of-the-mill event. We are going to have a constructive discussion that will determine the country’s fate. It definitely seriously affects people’s mood. Supporters of the government, the opposition, liberals, and conservatives are looking forward to the congress decisions. A very important and serious piece of work is ahead of us. First, we will have to objectively evaluate the resources we have, the directions and mechanisms for restoring economic and social growth. We will have to set intensive but feasible tasks.”

According to the head of the upper chamber of the Belarus parliament, over the course of many years Belarusians have grown accustomed to a calm and quite wealthy life. “At present Belarus is one of the countries where income per capita is above the world’s average. Countries with higher revenues and better economic prosperity cannot afford our social package,” he remarked.

Belarusians have saved $7.7 billion in their bank accounts or nearly twice as much as the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves. “If we look at the balance of consumer import in the last two five-year terms — from 2006 through 2015 — we will see a deficit of $6 billion. It means that our consumer export is much less than our consumer import. It turns out we’ve been feeding foreign manufacturers. Brest Oblast where entrepreneurship is well-developed should seriously think about the problem,” said the Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus.

Mikhail Myasnikovich has been put in charge of supervising the working group that has to prepare the draft program on Belarus’ social and economic development in 2016-2020. The document will be discussed during the fifth Belarusian People’s Congress. Mikhail Myasnikovich outlined the main provisions of the document. The next five-year term will focus on export, employment, investments, informatization, and youth policy. “Developers of the program suggest greatly simplifying the handling of affairs in these areas,” said the head of the upper chamber of the Belarusian parliament. More attention will be paid to empowering the private initiative. In his words, Belarus’ GDP growth is supposed to reach 12-15% by the end of the five-year term.