Aleksandr Lukashenko meets with Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich

    President of the Republic of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko heard out a report from Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich on 30 January.

    The head of state was interested in the current state of affairs at industrial enterprises.

     "The sales growth is our biggest concern. Naturally, this means currency earnings for the country. God save us from last year's situation, which impacted the monetary policy and the foreign exchange market. How are things today with the enterprises that we have been concerned about? Have they managed to reduce the backlogs of inventory? What are the figures for January?” the President asked.

    Aleksandr Lukashenko said that he will hold a session to discuss the development of the woodworking industry on 31 January. The head of state warned officials who are invited to the event against sugarcoating the situation.

    "For us it is very important that this sector perform well,” the head of state underlined. “The main issue is the sale of products. Today we need contracts or pre-contract deals. This is very important. We will make a great number of products, and we will have nowhere to sell them,” the President stressed.

     “I am intimately familiar with the situation at each enterprise. I warn government officials against sugarcoating the situation. It is bad that we are not holding this event in Minsk, not in Vitebsk. But we will talk about it tomorrow,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said addressing the Prime Minister.

    The President also touched upon the topic of cooperation with the People’s Republic of China. Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that he was informed about the outcome of the recent visit of the Belarusian Premier to China. The Belarusian leader asked about the attitudes of the Chinese partners. “How are they going to promote our cooperation and what progress can be made? I will see Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Sochi. He has already told me about it; therefore I would like to be informed about the latest developments,” the Belarusian head of state said.

    The Prime Minister reported on the expected January figures for the manufacturing industry and the economy. Mikhail Myasnikovich noted with regret that "the market is recovering slowly and the economic growth has not picked up yet. At the same time, the potash industry and mechanical engineering are showing good sales growth.

    The backlogs of inventory have fallen a bit: by Br5.5 trillion as compared to the middle of last year. Today they constitute about 70% of the monthly production output. However, major companies such as BelAZ, MAZ, and MTZ have still high backlogs of inventory. The head of state demanded that the government take appropriate measures right to making personnel reshuffle proposals.

    Mikhail Myasnikovich provided the details of his visit to China. The Premier emphasized that Belarus and China are advancing to a fundamentally new level of cooperation, i.e. from commerce and lending to investments. A number of Chinese companies have plans to invest in Belarus. “It is very important for us, because it means diversification of our capital investments,” the Premier said.

    Xi Jinping decided that the status of the official who will co-chair the joint intergovernmental commission should be as high as Deputy Premier. Xi Jinping also pledged all possible support for joint investment projects of the mutual interest. Aleksandr Lukashenko welcomed these decisions.

    In line with the agreements, a delegation of Chinese specialists will visit Belarus in the near future. They will discuss the existing bilateral projects, the monetary policy and assistance to investors.

    The head of state was informed in detail about the progress in establishing the Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park. A session of the supervisory board of the park’s management company will be held soon to decide on the amount of works related to internal and external infrastructure. The works to build the external infrastructure are to be finished in May-June 2014, which will allow a number of companies, like ZTE and Huawei, to get registered as resident companies of the park.