Report of Minsk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Turchin

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Minsk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Turchin on 17 December.

The agenda of the meeting was dominated by two topics - economic performance of Minsk Oblast and the way the region is combating the coronavirus.

According to Aleksandr Turchin, preliminary data suggest that the gross regional product in January-November this year was 99.9% as against the same period last year. “Such a figure seems to be high, but disappointing: we fell short of 0.1%. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the year the figure was 91%, and now it is 99.9%. In other words, the region picked up steam over this time. We have cautious optimism that by the end of the year the GRP will be as high as last year’s,” the governor said.

“Well, hopefully. You are falling short by just a tenth of a percent... However, we still have December. It seems to be not bad. As an economist, you understand that we need a result, because we should not expect that the next year will be good. You see what is happening around us. Therefore, let’s say that we have done the impossible, but we should have done a little more,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

As to the situation with coronavirus in Minsk Oblast, there are grounds to believe that the COVID-19 has hit the plateau in the region. “According to our estimates, two weeks of data point to a plateau. There is no increase.  Pneumonia cases and confirmed coronavirus cases neither increase nor decline,” Aleksandr Turchin said.