Belarus President makes personnel decisions 

President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko made new appointments on 22 October. Aleksandr Lukashenko approved the appointment of:

Nikolai Tokar as Deputy Chairman of the Brest Oblast Executive Committee;

Fyodor Kolonchuk as Chairman of the Zhabinka District Executive Committee;

Yuri Gromakovsky as Chairman of the Baranovichi District Executive Committee;

Alexander Zozulya as Chairman of the Kobrin District Executive Committee;

Vyacheslav Selmanovich as Chairman of the Lyakhovichi District Executive Committee;

Alexander Mikalutsky as Chairman of the Zhitkovichi District Executive Committee;

Nikolai Kodatenko as Chairman of the Belynichi District Executive Committee;

Alexander Muravyev as Chairman of the Cherikov District Executive Committee;

Anatoly Dutko as Chairman of the Mogilev District Executive Committee;

Anatoly Shchuplenkov as Chairman of the Krugloye District Executive Committee;

Vitaly Solodukha as Director General of OAO Integral – the management company of the holding company Integral.

When appointing heads of local executive bodies Aleksandr Lukashenko warned officials that they will work with people.

“In the near future we will greatly increase, straightly speaking, the pressure on the relevant personnel of your level with regard to the responsibility for the development of small towns, district capitals, and particularly agriculture,” the head of state remarked.

Speaking about agriculture, the President emphasized that the decision on the upgrade of this branch of the economy was the right one as it has earned a noticeable amount of foreign currency for the country through food exports. “This year it has produced about $6 billion worth of export. Without it there would be nothing to plug the hole with. I am not speaking about food security, the need to feed people. Those are the good things. But I am extremely displeased by the economic and financial effectiveness that the economy demonstrates now. It is time to learn to live within your means. If you have money, you live. If you do not, borrow it, seek it, or live without salaries,” the head of state said.

“It is time we stopped talking about straightening not only lands but agricultural cooperatives, too. We need an iron order. And you are the ones responsible for it,” the President said.

“The Agriculture and Food Minister is a consultant, an auditor, the best performing agricultural specialist, who can recommend and give hints. The vice premier in charge of supervising agriculture is the man to take care of exports. The entire manufacturing industry, its effectiveness, agrotowns and the rest of the social infrastructure, which should operate as intended, are your area of responsibility. Therefore you and your colleagues must think about how you will work and earn money,” the head of state remarked.

Aleksandr Lukashenko assured that agriculture will not be left without state support but support will be provided only for effective projects: “We will support, use the state budget to allocate finance, enable preferential rates on loans, but only for specific projects that will return investments”.

Apart from that, if new enterprises have to be created, they may be granted a tax respite for several years.

The President warned that the agricultural sector will come under detailed scrutiny by analogy with the construction industry. “The commission on construction issues, which is chaired by the head of the Presidential Administration, will soon finish its work in the construction industry and will turn its attention to agriculture. We have invested more than $50 billion in agriculture for the past twelve years. It's annual GDP. Please think about how to make a return. Inspections to the region will be unscheduled. I think we will have a meeting in Vitebsk on these matters. Agro-towns, machine yards, grain facilities, farms, and other facilities will be inspected. We have a bad trend: everybody sits and waits for loans, other handouts. I assure you no one will give you anything,” the President said.

"We have shown you how things must be done. We have turned half of the farms into good complexes with the help of the state. So you know what to do,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

According to the President, as soon as a new dairy farm is built, the environment and people change for the better. In addition, modern large farms allow solving the problem of skills shortage, as fewer people are needed to maintain these farms. "Here is the choice, competition," the Belarusian head of state said.

“So you need to think about how you live, how you ensure high living standards we aim to have in every regional center. The responsibility will be high. Chairmen of the regional executive committees, heads of the town administrations are not fully involved in addressing the socio-economic and ideological issues in the country. It is my firm belief. You must be the locomotives. Everything should be nice, decent, and clean so that that people should be proud of living in a particular place. This is your job. Authorities should display normal and human attitude to people, without any arrogance. This is your main task,” said the head of state.