Visit to Minsk City Technopark

Localization is crucial for Belarus. It is not just an image-building project, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he visited the Minsk City Technopark on 16 January.

Minsk Mayor Vladimir Kukharev reported to the head of state on the progress in the reconstruction of the technopark site and the prospects for the development of MotoVeloZavod located there. Aleksandr Lukashenko inquired about the problems that have not been solved yet. Vasily Gerasimov, Chairman of the State Control Committee of Belarus, informed the President that there are still issues with the localization of production.

“Localization is the most important issue for us. This is not just a PR exercise. Back in the Soviet Union we produced tractors, trucks (MAZ trucks), bicycles, motorcycles. Indeed this is about the image. But what is the essence of this problem. We have decided that we need to preserve our expertise that we inherited from the past generations, to develop and modernize it. We have followed this path, and in this respect MotoVeloZavod is a case in point. We need to develop what we know how to do and what we have been doing,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized.

He noted that Belarus is capable of making anything, even a space rocket, but it all depends on time and money. And there's a big question whether the country needs space rockets.

“We need all of these: trucks, tractors, bicycles and motorcycles. So we developed the expertise we had. We had serious competencies, so we developed them,” the President pointed out.