Belarus President Alexander
Lukashenko heard out a report on the suggested draft presidential Decree on
managing the usage of the radio frequency spectrum from Communications and
Informatization Minister Konstantin Shulgan on 2 October.
The head of
state wondered why the new legislation was needed. “We’ve worked on managing
the radio spectrum for many years. It seemed to me there were no issues… Did we
manage it wrong? Did we fail to distribute it right? Some pay and some don’t?
What is new about the situation that the head of state has to take another look
at it?” asked Alexander Lukashenko.
Alexander Lukashenko also
wondered whether it is possible to continue working with the current
legislation in place. “If we cannot do that, we will return to the matter and
will prepare the relevant presidential Decree,” said the head of state.
Apart from that, Alexander
Lukashenko asked what the recently appointed minister thinks about the
situation in the sphere he is now in charge of and what his plans were.
Konstantin Shulgan informed
the head of state about the suggested draft presidential Decree. In his words,
an absolute majority of the suggested changes deal with the need to bring the
legal base into compliance with the practice in order to expedite the
decision-making process.
The communications and
informatization minister told media after the meeting that the head of state
had approved the draft Decree on the whole but certain adjustments would be
introduced.
In particular, in line with
the draft Decree the State Supervisory Department for Telecommunications of the
Republic of Belarus will be able to issue permits to use ship radio stations
and will assign international call signs and other identification signals. In
2016 Belarus acceded to the Convention on the International Maritime
Organization and undertook to issue all the necessary papers that ships need,
including permits to operate ship radio stations.
In view of the campaign to
reduce the usage of U.S. dollars in the Belarusian economy the draft Decree
replaces prices in euros for allocating and using radio frequencies with prices
in Belarusian rubles.
The draft presidential Decree
is also designed to improve the procedure of the temporary import of
radioelectronic equipment, which is used to prepare and host events organized
upon instructions of the head of state or the Council of Ministers. Among other
things these measures will allow participants of the 2nd European Games Minsk
2019, foreign persons, who will cover these events, and guests to temporarily
import and use radio stations without having to register them and pay for using
the radio spectrum.
Apart from that, the draft
Decree determines the main international legislation provisions to protect
frequency allocations made by the Republic of Belarus. Some presidential
decrees on the radio spectrum will be amended and expanded bearing in mind the
current practice.
The new presidential Decree
will not require the central state budget to allocate additional funds.