Belarus President makes new appointments
President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko made new appointments on 15 December. The head of state appointed:
 | Marat Zhilinsky | Rector of the Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of Belarus; |
 | Andrei Gal | head of the administration of the China-Belarus industrial park Great Stone; |
 | Vyacheslav Reut | Director of the Financial Monitoring Department at the Belarusian State Control Committee; |
| Nikolai Demchuk | resident plenipotentiary representative of the Republic of Belarus in charter bodies and other agencies of the Commonwealth of Independent States. |
The President also approved the appointment of:
 | Sergei Stashevsky | head of the Oktyabrsky District administration of Vitebsk; |
 | Dmitry Aleinikov | head of the Sovetsky District administration of Gomel; |
 | Alexander Bulak | Chairman of the Ivye District Executive Committee; |
 | Gennady Khoruzhik | Chairman of the Smorgon District Executive Committee; |
 | Mikhail Golushkov | head of the Oktyabrsky District administration of Mogilev; |
 | Viktor Laptev | Deputy Chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee; |
 | Vladimir Demidenko | Director General of the Mogilev-based factory Strommashina; |
 | Oleg Borodin | Director General of the Bioresources Research Center at the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus; |
 | Igor Lutsky | First Deputy Information Minister; |
 | Maxim Yermolovich | First Deputy Finance Minister; |
 | Dmitry Lapko | Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus; |
 | Olga Dolgopolova | Consul General of the Republic of Belarus in Milan (Italy); |
 | Vladimir Klimov | Consul General of the Republic of Belarus in Daugavpils (Latvia); |
| Vladimir Zakharchuk | a member of the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee; | |
| Nikolai Kukhovets | a member of the Minsk Oblast Executive Committee; | |
| Alexei Afanasyev | a member of the Minsk City Executive Committee. |
Addressing representatives of local authorities, the President urged to optimize the structure of subordinate organizations.
“I would like to draw your attention to this matter, because we need to put things in order in all walks of life without waiting for some additional instructions. Everything should be clear and plain,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed.
“After the collapse of the Soviet Union we were carried away by foreign terms like holding companies and so on. We had production associations, which is the same as holding companies, as far as I understand. What was the point of renaming them? Now we have holding companies, production associations, etc. Everything should be clear and plain, both in agriculture and manufacturing,” the head of state said. “Everything was very clear in agriculture: there were collective farms and state-owned farms and that was it. Now one cannot make head or tail of it! Everything should be rendered in a more comprehensible form by the start of the new five-year term, let alone the names. There was time when the country had a heated debate on how to call collective farms. Decisions were made on a high-profile level. Now if the head of some collective farm wants to call it a dirty word, he will be able to do so and will get away with it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
“Sort out this matter together with the government. Everything should be crystal-clear for people. Most importantly, things should be intelligible,” the President emphasized.
The head of state also touched upon the situation on foreign markets.
“The year is a special one, the situation is complicated. You can see how Russia has been reduced and Russia is our key market. You can see what is going on in Ukraine, one of our key markets, there is a war going on, buying merchandise is not something they think about, moreover, buying complicated products such as MAZ vehicles, BelAZ trucks, tractors,” the President noted. “But it does not mean that we are going to sit idly and wait for a better future to come. No! We have to do whatever we can do today in order to save our production sector and keep people employed,” he added.
The head of state once again drew attention to the need to diversify export.
“We cannot rely on only Russia all the time, although it is a brotherly country. Because you can see that that market has crumbled and we followed suit. Yes, we used to sell 85% of the output to the Russian market, now the figure is only 40-45%. Yes, our dependence on a single market has been decreased but we have to do more than that. Then there is Ukraine. I do not think that the state of affairs is better in Kazakhstan. This is why we have to pay any price to reach new markets. And it can be done,” the President said.
In his words, the penetration of the U.S. market by several Belarusian companies testifies to that. “All kinds of sanctions have been scrapped and we now trade with them. It means it can be done,” the he said.
The head of state remarked that municipal administrations should take a closer look at the operation of their local companies regardless of what owner the companies report to. “Keep in mind that there are no enterprises in your districts that belong to someone else. All of them are your concern. You are the presidents in all of these districts,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “This is why do not be afraid of approaching them and encouraging them to produce results!” he added.
“I would like to emphasize one more time that the situation in the world is complicated, all the more so in our region. I should say that this kind of situation has never happened. And in this situation we should prove our ability,” the President stressed. “The next year is an exam for us. However hard it may be, our people should understand us. And in order for them to understand us, we should produce results however hard it can be,” he added.
It is necessary to find new target markets taking into account the demand for Belarusian products, Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement as he approved the appointment of Vladimir Demidenko as the new director of the Mogilev-based factory Strommashina. The President believes that it is inadmissible for companies to operate only for the sake of piling up their merchandise in warehouses. Apart from manufacturing, it is necessary to sell products at a profit in modern conditions. It should be the key factor in the development of long-term strategies, the head of state is convinced.
The President urged Andrei Gal, who was appointed head of the administration of the China-Belarus Industrial Park, to work harder. “Wait-and-see attitudes will not work. We have to deploy the park since we have made the relevant decision. The Chinese side is in favor of it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted. He remarked that the park should be home to companies with state-of-the-art technologies.
“We have set out to accomplish a great endeavor over there and it has to be implemented. But going smoothly is the most important part. Make conclusions based on the poor performance of the Minsk City Executive Committee in previous years. Their attitudes wavered in order to win favors from anyone. But you should win favors only from business,” the head of state underlined.
When appointing Marat Zhilinsky Rector of the Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko demanded to mprove the quality of training of executive personnel. This is the only university operating under the aegis of the President. Therefore, special attention should b drawn to the quality of education. The academy plays a leading role in the implementation of the personnel policy. The head of state noted that this is a key university which trains the administrative elite of the country whose professionalism has an impact on Belarus’ development. The personnel of the university have a task to train a new generation of high-ranking officials. The university provides advanced training services to executives of various levels and specialists in public administration who will occupy leading positions at companies, in regional administration bodies, and the government.
The head of state urged to pay special attention to the formation of the database of talented youth and said that he wanted t listen to the corresponding proposals of the new rector of the Academy of Public Administration.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also remarked that at present the country faces very tough competition. It is important not only to survive in these conditions but also to make progress. Only good executives and highly-qualified specialists can fulfill this task.